Another record for leaping Luvo Manyonga

World champion Luvo Manyonga opened his season in style on Wednesday night, shattering the national indoor long jump record at a meeting in Paris.

Launching a 2018 world lead of 8.23m with the first indoor leap of his career in the opening round, he added five centimetres to the 11-year-old SA mark of 8.18m which had been jointly held by Khotso Mokoena and Ruswahl Samaai.

The lanky 27-year-old athlete went on to jump even further in the penultimate round, producing an 8.32m attempt and falling just four centimetres short of the African record held by Ghanaian-born athlete Ignisious Gaisah.

Manyonga, who set a national outdoor record of 8.65m and won the world title in London during a superb 2017 campaign, cemented his place as the early favourite to add the global indoor title to his tally at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham next month.

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