Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, 20-year-old holder of all South African records in the long and triple jump, set a new national long-jump mark of 8,27m at the fourth annual Prisma Comms Ericsson Athletics Championships at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday.
It bettered his previous official national mark best by 5cm and he left the stadium with his medal and a bonus cheque of R5 000.
”It came as a surprise, although I thought a new record was a possibility after I jumped 8,06m at Potchefstroom a week ago. I have been training now for four weeks and I am really looking forward to the serious part of the season.
”I think I have it in me to jump 8,5m in 2006, but I am also going to do the triple jump more seriously in the new year,” Mokoena said after his new record jump.
His next outings will be at the Engen meetings in Durban and Parow in December.
Mokoena, a student at North West University in Potchefstroom, is the current world junior champion in the triple jump.
He broke the national long-jump record at the South African Students’ Championships in Johannesburg with a jump of 8,37m in April, but because of a mistake by the responsible official not to make use of a steel tape, the record application was turned down by Athletics South Africa.
He then improved the official mark by 1cm when he jumped 8,22m at the World Championships in Finland.
His record jump in Pretoria came in the third round of the meeting at Pilditch after he had opened proceedings with two jumps measuring 8,08m.
The wind-reading was 2m per second against, a steel tape measure was used and he was also subjected to a doping control afterwards.
Two Gauteng North athletes, Yaw Fosu-Amoah (7,67m) and Charles Strohmenger (7,21m), finished second and third respectively. — Sapa