Khotso Mokoena





Team Visa CEMEA Hopeful

Date of birth: 06/03/85
Sport: Triple Jump, Long Jump and High Jump
Hometown: Heidelberg

Achievements to date:

Internationals:

2008
IAAF Golden League Grand Prix, Berlin – 2nd
IAAF Golden League Grand Prix, Oslo – 3rd
World Indoor Championships, Valencia – 1st (Long Jump)
IAAF Indoor Grand Prix, Finland – 1st

2007
World Championships 2007 Osaka: 5th (Long Jump)

2006
Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne: 1x Silver (Triple Jump)

2004
World Junior Championships Moscow: 1x Silver (Long Jump), 1x Gold (Triple Jump) 		  He can be spotted a mile away - the 'G-Man' stands 1.90m in his socks. Even if it were not for his lean and muscular tall physique, Godfrey G-man Mokoena would be conspicuous at every athletics track. He is the guy who will be bopping his head to a rappers tune whilst warming up next to the long jump. That’s Godfrey G-man Mokoena, South Africa’s record holder in the long and triple jump …and still only 23 years old.

Godfrey was always good at jumps: long, high and triple. He competed at the World Youth Championships in 2001 in the High Jump. In 2004 he won both the silver medal in the Long Jump as well as the Gold Medal in the Triple Jump at the World Junior Championships. Ironically he sees himself as a better long jumper than a triple jumper and will be focusing on that event this year.

There can be no doubt that Godfrey is hugely talented. In 2005 he went over 8m nine times. He has rewritten the record books for all age categories – Youth, Junior and Senior. His motivation and passion for jumping can be traced back to that epic long jump duel at the 1991 World Championships between Carl Lewis and Mike Powell when it took a World Record by Powell to secure the Gold medal.

The nickname G-Man originated when his friends at school used to ask him "Hey how is it going Godfrey man…." Out of that the next natural progression became G-Man, a name he is quiet comfortable with and particular to.

The 2008 season so far has been a revelation for Khotso. After a period of time training at the National High Performance Centre near Pretoria, he left his long term coach in favour of Angus Polil, in order to boost his power and speed, thus making him more competitive.

The results speak for themselves. Throughout the busy South African summer, he has continually beaten all comers, apart from the National Championships, where he reached the qualifying distance, but finished in 2nd place.

The highlight of the season so far though was the Gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, where he leapt 8:08m against a very strong international field.

His future targets include a new world long jump record and a dream distance of 18 meters in the triple as future targets. "I have been blessed with special talents to jump and hopefully the targets will be within my grasp in years to come." Some have questioned whether he should continue to do both long and triple. "At this stage I feel pretty confident that I can do both quite successfully." he says. "But it is not easy and becoming more difficult as time progresses." For Beijing however he will concentrate on the long jump.