ATHLETICS NEWS - The world long jump champion, Luvo Manyonga, had his sights set on the world record for quite a while now and just maybe tomorrow in France it might happen.
It is certainly going to be a unique world record attempt. If the Tuks/HPC-athlete, or any of the other six athletes competing succeed in doing so, there is bound to be some controversy because they are competing at 3 032 metres above sea-level on a specially built long-jump track. Most of the world record attempts happened at sea level.
The athletes will warm up at an indoor facility in Tignes and will then be flown up by helicopter to the track in the Alps. It is about a two-minute flight.
Mike Powell, who jumped 8.95 metres in 1991 at the Tokyo World Championships, holds the current world record.
It is interesting to note that when Bob Beamon (USA) set his world record of 8.90m at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he competed at 2 250 metres. At the time it was argued that Beamon had an unfair advantaged competing at such a high altitude.
Earlier this season Manyonga set his South African record of 8.65 metres in Potchefstroom, which is only 1 341 metres above sea level.
In South Africa athletes often do high altitude training in Dullstroom, which is 2 077m above sea level, while the Tuks/HPC-rowers do their high altitude training at Katse Dam in Lesotho, which is at 2 100m.
It will be a definite challenge for Manyonga and the athletes to compete at 3 032 metres. The problem with competing at high altitude is that there is less oxygen, which means an athlete’s respiratory rate and heart rate speed up.
Neil Cornelius (Tuks/HPC coach) made it clear that it is not going to be a case of fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.
“We have planned for the world record attempt. Karen Gibbs (physiotherapist) has been helping Luvo with special breathing exercises to prepare him from competing at 3 000 metres. We also made provision for special thermal clothing should it be really cold in the mountains.”
Cornelius admits that many an athlete has failed in the past when officially going for a world record.
“Although all of this has especially been organised to help the athletes set a world record, Luvo is not obsessed with jumping a specific distance. Obviously, we want Luvo to do that really big jump. I honestly believe he is capable of doing something remarkable.
“But nothing is going to change. Our approach will be the same as at the World Championships in London. Luvo’s goal will be to make sure that his first jump counts because we believe that with a good first attempt you ‘buy’ five more jumps. It is important that Luvo should have fun because the more relaxed he is, the better he performs.
“Competing at such a high altitude certainly creates its unique challenges. For example, I know that Luvo is going to be much faster in his approach than normal, so we will have to make certain adaptions to it to compromise for the extra speed.”
As to whether the IAAF will recognise a world record set at such a high altitude, Cornelius said he foresees no problems.
“All of this is legal. What might happen is that the statisticians will put an ‘A’ in brackets behind whatever distance is jumped to indicate it happened at altitude. Personally, I don’t view this as any different than Luvo jumping at Tuks, which is also at altitude.”
