Manyonga ends seven-year hiatus

...Targets comeback at World Indoors

 

By Maxwell Kumoye 

 

 

Former Olympic silver medallist Luvo Manyonga is set to make his long-awaited return to international competition after being named in South Africa’s team for the upcoming World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland later this month.

The 35-year-old long jumper has been absent from the global stage for seven years but now has a chance to relaunch his career following the completion of a four-year anti-doping suspension in December 2024.

Luvo Manyonga, who famously won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics, remains one of South Africa’s most naturally gifted track and field athletes despite a career repeatedly interrupted by disciplinary issues.

The former world champion served multiple sanctions during his career, including a recent four-year ban after failing to provide sufficient whereabouts information to anti-doping officials. 

Earlier in his career, he also received an 18-month suspension after testing positive for the recreational drug tik, a local South African variant of crystal methamphetamine and subsequently entered rehabilitation between 2012 and 2014.

Now back in competition, the South African jumper has shown promising signs of a resurgence, recording a season’s best leap of 8.11 metres this year, currently ranking him 17th in the world.

Despite the setbacks, the veteran remains ambitious and has set his sights on returning to the Olympic stage at the 2028 Summer Olympics.

“I think I have another Olympics in me because in those four years I was out, it was like a car was parked, not being used,” he said in an interview with Eyewitness News last year.

Manyonga’s career has been defined by both adversity and remarkable achievements. 

After overcoming his early struggles with addiction, he rose to global prominence with his Olympic silver medal in Rio before reaching the pinnacle of the sport by winning gold at the 2017 World Athletics Championships. 

He also claimed the long jump title at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

His selection for the World Indoor Championships now marks another chapter in a career that has swung between redemption and controversy, as the South African veteran attempts to prove he still belongs among the world’s elite.