Ngonidzashe Makusha
Ngonidzashe Makusha ( born March 11, 1987 in Zimbabwe ) is a Zimbabwean athlete who competes mainly in the long jump and the 100 -meter run.
Career
Early years
At the Track Junior World Championships in 2006 in Beijing Makusha finished third in the long jump twelfth place while he was eliminated in the semifinal round in the 100 -meter run. In 2007 he won at the Pan-African Games in Algiers, together with Gabriel Mvumvure, Brian Farai and Lewis Banda the bronze medal in the 4 x 100 - meter relay. The following season, he went to Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he began to study economics. He won at the NCAA Championships in the long jump and scored with his length of 8.30 m has a national record.
Rise in the world's top
At the Olympic Games in Beijing Makusha missed a medal win just barely. He went in the first round of the finals with 8.19 m in the lead. In the fourth round of the Panamanian Irving Saladino repressed it ( 8.34 m) and the South African Godfrey Mokoena Khotso ( 8.24 m) first to third place. In the sixth and final passage of the Cuban Ibrahim Camejo moved 8.20 m over an inch on him and Makusha was finally fourth.
2009 defended his Makusha NCAA title successfully. After he missed the following season due to injury, he showed up again in early 2011 in good shape. First, he won the long jump competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Blacksburg in February with 8.15 m. In April, he managed a jump to 8.40 m, which was not the best list capable but due to strong tailwind. A little later he improved his personal best in the 100 - meter dash at 9.97 s and thus ran Zimbabwean record. He also found an entrance to the small number of athletes who were able to break through both the 8- foot mark in the long jump and the 10 - second barrier in the 100 meters. At the NCAA Championships, he won both events, scoring with 9.89 s and 8.40 m each personal bests. He thus managed to become only the fourth athlete in the history of the championships after DeHart Hubbard, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis such a double victory.
At the World Athletics Championships 2011 in Daegu Makusha won with 8.29 m bronze medal in the long jump.