Manyonga floats to African record while Horn improves her SA mark

The incredible Luvo Manyonga broke the African indoor long-jump record at a meet in Paris on Sunday as he posted a winning leap of 8.40m.

After taking the South African record on Wednesday night with jumps of 8.23m and then 8.32m‚ Manyonga built up to his continental cracker in Metz‚ about 300km east of Paris.

The world outdoor champion started with two no jumps and then opened his account on his third attempt with an 8.12‚ followed by 8.22‚ 8.27 and then finally he launched himself to 8.40.

That surpassed the 8.36m African record Ghana’s Ignisious Gaisah posted 12 years ago.

Manyonga‚ owner of the 8.65 African outdoor mark‚ has said he’s chasing the 8.95 world outdoor record‚ but the indoor mark is a little closer at 8.79‚ set by American legend Carl Lewis in 1984.

At the same meet‚ Carina Horn took one-hundredth of a second off the SA record she set on Friday night‚ going 7.09sec in the women’s 60m.