JOHANNESBURG - It takes a village to raise a champion. When Luvo Manyonga lines up for his run-up the world waits with bated breath for the South African long-jump phenom to unleash another earth-shattering leap.
In an event where every little detail can transfer into valuable title-winning centimetres, it is not surprising that Mayonga may be flying solo when his foot connects the board but it is the work of a coordinated team behind the scenes that has supplied the boosters to the naturally talented machine.
There has been this misnomer that the insanely talented Manyonga can merely pitch up to produce the magic from the last year or so.
Since wiping the slate clean and rebuilding his fledgeling career, Manyonga has had a team of experts looking at every detail to get him from zero to one of the most exciting prospects in world athletics.
Like a team of mechanics fine tuning a high-powered engine, the South African long-jump king has his own special unit consisting of the coach Neil Cornelius, strength and conditioning coach Wayne Coldman, and physiotherapist Karabo Morokane.
Since winning the 2016 Rio Olympic silver medal Manyonga has emerged as one of the biggest threats to Mike Powell’s dust-covered world record of 8.95m.
Manyonga has extended the South African record twice this season, also leaping over 8.60 metres at four consecutive meetings.
Conquering the world one leap at a time, Manyonga emulated American long jump and sprinting legend Carl Lewis’ performances from 1987 with his four jumps over 8.60m.
Manyonga will be going into the IAAF World Championships next month as the resounding favourite in the long jump holding a world lead of 8.65m, which is 16 centimetres further than his nearest rival, compatriot Ruswahl Samaai.
But what we see is the culmination of hard work since he started rebuilding his life with a dedicated team doing everything in their power have Manyonga firing on all cylinders.
“Although he was active he did not do long-jump specific training and you can see that with how he has improved in a year winning silver at the Olympics and what he has done this year,” Cornelius points out.
“So you can see the foundation we have built from 2015 to 2016 which is showing now. People may think this happened overnight but it is something that has been coming since 2015 so it was a long road we had to travel.
“We had to build this guy from the ground up where we had to be patient, in 2015 I was dreaming about Tokyo 2020.”
The consensus is Manyonga has only scratched the surface of his true potential and as tempting as it is to dream of the South Africa soaring over nine metres, it may only come in smaller increments.
It is no secret Manyonga has the figure-nine etched into his consciousness and there is a true belief he can one day break one of the greatest barriers in world sport.
“The world record has been a goal for me even before I started doing long jump, and I wanted to be the first person on earth to jump over nine metres,” Manyonga said after he broke the South African record for the first time with a leap of 8.62m at the provincial championships in Pretoria.
The plan, it seems, was always to get Manyonga into the kind of shape that would make him a medal contender at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
He has exceeded expectations as he makes massive strides forward instead of incremental ones.
“We knew he would be able to produce magic over a year or two but if we really want to see something special then we would have to work with him for four or five years,” Cornelius said.
“I have a full programme worked out for him until 2020, so this is the basis, this is only the beginning.
“It is a constant adjustment, Luvo has really become faster and stronger since last year and we had to make a lot of adjustments.”
Coldman, who has played a leading role in getting Manyonga in world-class shape, describes the philosophy as coach driven, athlete centred and science supported.
“With Luvo we look at it fairly simply; strength, mobility, and technique are crucial so if we put those three things in place normally in sprinting and explosive sports things are gonna go really well,” Coldman said.
“Certain aspects like strength and mobility is mine where plyometrics will lie with Neil, while we have KB (Karabo) as the physiotherapist.
“KB also comes in and sits advising us on the minutiae of the body with certain elements like the right or left is not strong enough or not coordinated enough.
“Then I can translate that information to Neil, so we actually have three guys non-stop looking at Luvo’s physical condition every day.”
Coldman refutes the notion that Manyonga can merely arrive at a competition and merely produce the goods.
Both Cornelius and Coldman reveal how Manyonga can switch from a playful attitude to one of focus.
“Luvo is this frightening talent but he is not doing all of this on natural talent, it will take you that far but when he comes to train he comes to train,” Coldman said.
“He is focussed, he listens, he tries, as an actual athlete he is very good, his diet is very good and it is not as if we coerce him into this.
“He just makes natural good decisions in terms of his athletics which is strange given his background but he works hard and he works very focused.”
Manyonga does not only grab attention for his ability to land jumps in excess of 8.50 metres but is also one of the characters of South African athletics.
It is that playful nature that makes him not only one of the fan favourites but also one of the most popular among his fellow athletes.
But when it is time to work, Manyonga channels the copious amounts of energy he has stored up into his training.
“The Luvo you see off the track, that loud and shouting, screaming guy goes away when we suddenly got to work,” Coldman said.
“He takes the energy into training but it becomes a lot more professional and much more focussed in terms of what the goal is and what we are asking him to do.
“It goes away from this playground attitude into this professional work attitude and that is the part that is crucial. No matter who you are and how talented you are you need to, at some point, work and think about what you are doing.”
What is Luvo’s Achilles heel in training?
“The worst of all is the stair sessions which is more the offseason work but it is the same for the rest of the group,” Cornelius reveals.
“Trust me, he suffers, the gym work is hard for him, I know when it is tough for him on the track, so talent only takes you that far.
“The way Luvo has worked in recent times is crazy, seriously crazy so I am not for a moment surprised about his distances.”
Working with one of the biggest rising stars in the long jump comes with its pressures.
“We have to do a really good job because it is not every day comes around, everybody wants a million dollars to drop into their lap when you get it you have to show the responsibility and understanding that you don’t go and spend it,” Coldman said.
“When I look back to 2015 when we met for the first time, I don’t think I ever expected what we were receiving at that point.
“It has been one of the most exciting but also scary process working with someone on this level.”