Things have gone from bad to worse for SA's disgraced long jump star Luvo Manyonga after apparel maker Nike confirmed yesterday that it had severed ties with him.
Manyonga's former agent Lee-Roy Newton had told Sowetan that the former Diamond League champion was battling drug addiction.
Nike communications manager Fareed Mohammed confirmed the news of the termination of the lucrative sponsorship to Sowetan yesterday.
“The contract between Nike and the athlete (Luvo Manyonga) expired at the end of 2020. We are no longer sponsoring him,” said Mohammed.
The Athletics Integrity Unit provisionally suspended Manyonga for a doping whereabouts failure on his birthday on Friday last week.
The former University of Pretoria athlete is untraceable, and his family and agent cannot get hold of him. The people who were close to him at the university in Tshwane said he had a problem keeping his drug use under control.
A source close to the situation told Sowetan that Manyonga earned big money from the Nike sponsorship. “Nike pulled the plug on Luvo. He is broke and owes a lot of people money. Nike has zero tolerance for drug abuse. The boy got paid big money every month, but he messed things up. He got nice sports gear on top of the big money they paid him every month,” said the source.
An athlete who also wished to remain anonymous said there was no way back for him in the sport. “It is a sad state of affairs. He could have gone to win a gold medal at the Olympics, but he is not serious about his career. He is always playful and never takes anything seriously. I pleaded with him to not stop training, but it didn't help,” said the athlete.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.