Luvo Manyonga soars to Diamond League victory

Wesley Botton

Luvo Manyonga delivered in style on Saturday, carrying the four-member South African contingent at the second leg of the IAAF Diamond League series in Shanghai.

Though he was placed under early pressure, Manyonga matched the distance achieved by Chinese opponent Shi Yuhao with a fourth-round leap of 8.43m in the men’s long jump.

While Shi looked to have picked up an injury with his final attempt, Manyonga stamped his authority on the contest, with the world champion making sure by racking up a best effort of 8.56m in the last round.

The South African star landed five centimetres short of his own meeting record set last season but climbed to the top of the 2018 world rankings.

In other disciplines, Wenda Nel settled for fourth place in the women’s 400m hurdles race in 55.63, well behind Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad of the United States, who won a hard-fought battle up front in 53.77.

Javelin thrower Sunette Viljoen ended sixth in her specialist event, going beyond 60 metres with only one of her six attempts after her fourth-round effort landed at 60.79m, and Rynardt van Rensburg was eighth in the men’s 800m race in 1:46.57.

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