One jump last weekend changed Jovan van Vuuren’s life in an instant —not just earning automatic qualification for the Paris Olympics but also thrusting him into medal contender status.
His 8.30m personal best, which would have made the podium at the last four editions of the Games, also offers him the opportunity to fulfil a boyhood dream for a dead friend from his days growing up in Bloemfontein.
Van Vuuren’s passion for long jump grew out of an intense rivalry with Hendrik Maartens, who consistently beat him in sprint races. “There’s only two races I can remember I beat him in. One is in grade five, 150m, and one in the first year we did 400m,” he said. .
He added jumping to his repertoire to find something he could win against Maartens.
They always dreamed of going to an Olympics together, but Maartens died in 2018. Van Vuuren plans to keep their vision alive by taking something of his friend’s, possibly his running spikes, along to Paris.
“I’m going to remind you to do that,” said coach Neil Cornelius.
That will be an emotional finale to the rollercoaster journey Van Vuuren has travelled so far.
Hanging by a thread
THAT leap at the Gauteng North championships in Pretoria last weekend was testament to the way Van Vuuren fought to get back onto the track, after one jump last year threatened to end his career, nearly tearing clean through one hamstring tendon in his right leg to the point he felt “something explode inside my leg”.
THAT jump came on the first anniversary of a doctor telling him his career was over. The tendon, normally 3.5mm thick, was hanging together by a 0.2mm thread.
He travelled to a specialist in Bethlehem. “He told me: ‘You’re done... your tendon is gone.’”
Surgery wasn’t an option because the tendon was too close to the sciatic nerve.
An emotional Van Vuuren sought counsel from Ruswahl Samaai, a fellow jumper, and Wayde van Niekerk, a former 400m training partner who had gone through a horrific knee injury.
Both advised him to see a psychologist while he followed a rehabilitation programme, which ranged from gymming to spending time in an oxygen chamber, under the close supervision of conditioning coach Niel du Plessis.
“That was more or less between a six- and nine-hour rehab every day,” said the 27-year-old, who is studying for a masters in education with a sports flavour.
After two months Van Vuuren returned for a follow-up scan, telling himself to be happy with a one percent improvement. Everyone was surprised when the doctor declared him fully healed.
The tendon was even thicker at 5mm; two months later it was 7mm.
Precision
In October he resumed training on the track and Cornelius had to teach him to jump again, which helped to iron out bad habits.
This discipline requires precision. Van Vuuren, the bronze medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, started his competition last weekend with a casual jump of just under 7.50m.
Cornelius told him to start his run-up two finger widths shorter, and Van Vuuren over-stepped for a no jump. The coach told him to take it back four fingers and the jumper soared to an 8.23m best on his third attempt.
Five minutes later came THAT jump. “After Saturday everything changed,” said Van Vuuren, who was almost immediately accepted into the golden grand prix in Botswana.
Cornelius believes there’s plenty of room for improvement. “It wasn’t a perfect jump,” said the coach, who mentored Luvo Manyonga to the 2016 Olympic silver and 2017 world championship gold.
Long jump is tough and Van Vuuren, at 1.93m and 82kg, was still feeling the effects of THAT jump four days later. “Technically, you’re putting yourself through a car crash. It’s insane.”
Cornelius points out that the force required at take-off is the equivalent of 10 to 15 times a jumper’s weight. “So this guy is putting up more than a ton of force on his legs.”
If Van Vuuren lands on the podium in France on August 6, it will reverberate around the country.
THAT jump last Saturday breathed life into a dream.
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