 Mokoena at the 2009 Lappeenranta Games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 6 March 1985 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 73 kg (161 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Long jump | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Updated on 15 August 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Godfrey Khotso Mokoena OIB (born 6 March 1985 in Heidelberg, South Africa) is a South African athlete who specializes in the long jump and triple jump.
He started his school education at Shalimar Ridge Primary School in Heidelberg, Gauteng. He excelled at gymnastics at a very early age.
He matriculated at Nigel High School, Nigel. His talent at long jump was discovered by Elna de Beer. [1] He started to compete in athletics at the age of 13. [2]
Originally competing in the triple jump, winning the World Junior title in 2004 (he also came second in the long jump) and the silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he switched to long jump in 2007 after an ankle injury. [1] [2] It was a very successful transition. In 2008, he won the long jump at the world indoor championships and silver at the Olympic games.
In July 2009, he set a new African record in long jump, 8.50m in Madrid in an IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting where he finished second behind Fabrice Lapierre. The previous African record, 8.46, was held by Cheikh Toure of Senegal and set in 1997. [3]
For the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he switched back to the triple jump, winning the gold medal. [2]
Phakiso Mokoena, father of Godfrey, was quoted in a local newspaper "Godfrey initially found it difficult to qualify for the Olympics, but has through hard work endured and finished second in the world."
Tatyana Romanovna Lebedeva is a Russian track and field athlete who competes in both the long jump and triple jump events. She is one of the most successful athletes in the disciplines, having won gold medals at Olympic, world and European levels. She has a long jump best of 7.33 m and held the then indoor world record mark of 15.36 m in the triple jump. In 2017 she was banned for doping.
Ignisious Gaisah is a Ghanaian-born athlete competing in the long jump for the Netherlands.
Cheikhou Tidiane Touré is a Senegal-born French athlete who specialised in the long jump. He retired after the 2003 season.
Phillips Olaosebikan Idowu, is a British athlete who specialised in the triple jump and was active at elite level between 2000 and 2014. He is a former World Outdoor and Indoor, European Outdoor and Indoor, and Commonwealth triple jump champion. He was also a silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Idowu is a member of the London-based Belgrave Harriers athletics club and has been for much of his career.
Mbulaeni Tongai Mulaudzi OIB was a South African middle distance runner, and the 2009 world champion in the men's 800 metres.
Andrew Owusu is a Ghanaian athlete who competed in the triple jump and long jump.
Fabrice Lapierre is a Mauritian-born Australian long jumper.
Ndiss Kaba Badji is a Senegalese athlete who competes in the long jump and triple jump. He is the Senegalese record holder for triple jump, with 17.07 metres, which he achieved when he won the 2008 African Championships. He has a personal best long jump of 8.32 metres, achieved in October 2009 in Beirut, which won him the silver medal at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie.
Blessing Oghnewresem Okagbare-Otegheri is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who specialized in long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medallist in the long jump and a world medalist in the 200 metres. Okagbare also holds the women's 100 metres Commonwealth Games record at 10.85 seconds. She is currently serving a 10-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules. Her ban expires on 30 July 2032.
Oluwatosin Bamidele “Tosin” Oke is a Nigerian track and field athlete, who competes in the triple jump. Born a dual national, he initially competed for Great Britain. He set the current UK junior indoor record and was 1 cm shy of the outdoor junior record. He was the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships Champion, and came 5th at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. After multiple indoor and outdoor UK titles, he later switched to compete for Nigeria. Since competing for Nigeria he has won back-to-back African Championships in Athletics titles and the Commonwealth Games championship and is the current All-Africa Games Champion. At the 2012 Summer Olympics Oke finished seventh in the triple jump final, the best Nigerian result of the Games.
Ngonidzashe Makusha is a Zimbabwean sprinter and long jumper. He is the national record holder over 100 m and long jump for Zimbabwe with 9.89 s (+1.3 m/s) and 8.40 m (0.0 m/s), respectively. Both performances were achieved during the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships in Des Moines, Iowa where he completed the 100 m - long jump double gold. Makusha was one of the only four, now five, athletes to win the 100 m - long jump double gold at the NCAA championships. The four others are DeHart Hubbard (1925), Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis (1981), and Jarrion Lawson (2016).
The men's long jump at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 16 and 18 August at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Thirty-eight athletes from 32 nations competed. The event was won by Irving Saladino of Panama, the nation's first Olympic gold medal in any event and its first medal the men's long jump. South Africa also won its first men's long jump medal, with Khotso Mokoena's silver. Ibrahim Camejo's bronze was Cuba's first medal in the event since 2000. This event marked the first time that an American did not classify to the final phase in a non-boycotted Olympic competition.
The men's long jump at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on 20 and 22 August. The season had seen a number of athletes performing to a high level before the championships, with reigning World and Olympic champion Irving Saladino. The other athlete to jump that distance was Dwight Phillips, who is the world leader with a jump of 8.74 meters. Dwight Phillips took bronze in 2007 and is looking for his first win over Irving Saladino at an international level. Italy's Andrew Howe, the 2007 world silver medalist, withdrew from the Championships. Other expected to medal content are Olympic silver medalist Godfrey Khotso Mokoena and Olympic Bronze Medalist Ibrahim Camejo.
The men's long jump competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August. Forty-two athletes from 30 nations competed. The event was won by 15cm by Greg Rutherford of Great Britain, the nation's second gold medal in the men's long jump and first medal in the event since winning gold in 1964. Mitchell Watt won Australia's fourth silver in the event; Australia had never won gold. Will Claye returned the United States to the podium after a 2008 Games with no American finalists; it was still only the first time that the American team had failed to win the event in two consecutive Games.
Henry Frayne is an Australian track and field athlete who competes in triple jump and long jump. He qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and finished 14th in qualifying with a distance of 7.93m, and did not qualify for the final.
Ruswahl Samaai is a South African track and field athlete who competes in the long jump. He was the bronze medallist in the event at the 2014 and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In 2017 he won the bronze medal in the long jump event at the World Championships held in London.
Ese Brume MON is a Nigerian athlete who specializes in the long jump. She is the current commonwealth champion and a three-time African senior champion in the long Jump and holds a personal best of 7.17 m She currently holds the commonwealth games record, African junior record and African record in the event. She's a two-time medalist at the world athletics championship, an Olympic bronze medalist and also a five-time African junior champion in athletics.
Hugues Fabrice Zango is a Burkinabé athlete who specialises in the triple jump and the long jump. He is the world indoor record holder in the triple jump with a jump of 18.07 m set in 2021 and the reigning world champion, winning the gold medal in the triple jump at the 2023 World Championships. Zango competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and won the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in the triple jump event, the first ever Olympic medal for Burkina Faso. He has also competed in World Championships, two African athletics championships, a Jeux de la Francophonie, two Summer Universiades and two African Games. He became Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medalist, earning a bronze medal in Tokyo, and set the African triple jump record at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.
Luvo Manyonga is a South African track and field athlete who specialises in the long jump. He won the 2017 World Championship in London and the 2018 Commonwealth Games title in the Gold Coast, Australia. He was the Olympic silver medallist in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Murali Sreeshankar is an Indian athlete who competes in the long jump event. He created a national record of 8.36 metres set in 2022.
World Indoor Champions in men's long jump | |
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African Champions in men's long jump | |
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African Champions in men's triple jump | |
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Commonwealth Games champions in men's triple jump | |
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World U20 Champions in men's triple jump | |
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