Mokoena started out in soccer

2008-08-18 17:13

Johannesburg - Godfrey Khotso Mokoena won South Africa's first medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Monday with a distance of 8.24m to take silver in the long jump.

The gold medal was won by Irving Saladino of Panama (8.34m).

According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, Mokoena, who hails from Ratanda, in Heidelberg, Gauteng, dabbled in football and basketball as a youth before beginning athletics at the age of 13.

He started his international career as a high jumper at the 2001 World Youth Championships where he came seventh but he later changed events.

Achievements since then include the World Junior triple jump title in Grosseto, Italy, in 2004.

Between 2002 and 2006, Mokoena "rewrote the South African record book with new youth, junior and senior records in both horizontal jumps", the IAAF continued.

In 2003 he won two medals - a silver and a bronze - at the All Africa Games, in Abuja, Nigeria and at the inaugural Afro-Asian Games, in Hyderabad, India two weeks later, he won bronze.

At the Athens Olympics in 2004, he bombed out. According to The Times, this was because he missed a warm-up call.

Mokoena attended North-West University in Potchefstroom and his long time coach Elna de Beer, who had worked with him since he was 13, had to stop training him as the distance between Nigel and Potchefstroom was becoming overwhelming.

Mokoena, who has a tattoo on his right arm, is 1.90m

- SAPA