Luvo Manyonga & Caster Semenya Crowned Diamond Race Champs in Switzerland

South Africa’s world long jump champion Luvo Manyonga and 800m champion Caster Semenya ended their seasons unbeaten, with two sparkling performances at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday night.

Manyonga won the long jump with a leap of 8.49 metres on his fourth jump, one centimetre further than his world championships winning distance in London earlier this month!

And joining him on the podium again, just like in London, was compatriot Ruswahl Samaai. Only this time, the South African’s medal was silver and not bronze.

Samaai leapt to an 8.31m best on the night with his penultimate leap. Sadly, there was to be no SA clean sweep of the podium as 2008 Olympics silver medallist Khotso Moekoena ended ninth and last with a 7.13 best.

In the women’s two-lapper Semenya again reigned supreme with a 1min 55.84sec.

A first-lap of 56sec had been requested by the big guns, and the bell came in 56.50 with Semenya her normal lurking self in fifth spot.

On this occasion though, she unleashed her powerful finishing effort a fair bit earlier than normal.

It wasn’t strong enough to get near the personal best 1:55.16 she ran in London, but the 1:55.84 end result was still enough to carry her almost a second clear of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba (1:56.71) and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui, who ran a personal best 1:56.87 for third and a repeat of the Rio Olympics podium placing last year.

Manyonga and Semenya were both crowned Diamond Race champions in their events, with the final meaning a healthy US$50,000 addition to their bank balances.

Source: SASCOC.co.za