When the 19-year-old Affies matriculant from Pretoria, Ntando Mahlangu, jumped 7.17 metres, setting a world record to win gold in the long jump at the Paralympic Games yesterday, there was a moment of shocked silence in a house 13 498km away from Tokyo.

Neil Cornelius could not believe what he had witnessed. But the moment the result flashed on the television screen, he went berserk.  It was with just reason, because he is the coach of the winning athlete.

“I yelled. I think it might be the loudest yell ever. My wife rushed over to see if I was OK, explained Cornelius, who had been coaching Mahlangu via WhatsApp messages from the lounge of his house in Elarduspark.

With one last jump left, Mahlangu was in third place, having jumped 7.02 metres. He needed to go big. The Tuks coach quickly sent one last Whatsapp with a short staccato-like message.

“Relax. Don’t overthink things. Don’t stress. Be fearless. Attack. Believe in yourself.”

The message was quickly relayed to Mahlangu by the team management before he lined up for his last attempt. The Affies-boy took his coach’s advice to heart, setting a world record for the second time in about an hour. His first attempt of 7.02m was also a world record in the T61-class.

As far as Cornelius was concerned, it was mission accomplished. It is the second time he had coached an athlete to win an Olympic medal. During the 2016 Rio Olympics, he helped Luvo Manyonga to win silver.

Cornelius might be the first South African coach to guide athletes to medals at the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.

According to him, he and Mahlangu only started working together for the last six weeks.

“When Ntando asked me to help him, I wanted to know how committed he was going to be. His answer was, ‘coach, I want to take this seriously’. It was precisely what he did. I would go as far as to say that he is one of the most disciplined athletes I worked with. He always gives 100%. Ntando is also a perfectionist,” an excited Cornelius remarked.

He said one of the biggest challenges was to make sure that Mahlangu did not hurt his back while jumping. That is the reason why he had stopped competing in the long jump a few years back. Cornelius realised they had to improve his technique to lessen the impact on his back when he lands.

“As I did not want to risk anything I had Ntando practising his landing on the high jump mats. It was only when I was satisfied that he mastered the new technique that I allowed him to do proper jumps,” Cornelius explained.

The coach said he knew that Mahlangu was going to do something special in Tokyo.

“During training, he consistently jumped 6.80 metres. It indicated that he had a big jump waiting to happen. However, what surprised me is the ease with which he jumped the 7.02 metres and 7.17 metres,” Cornelius concluded.

Mahlangu hopes to win another gold medal for South Africa on September 3, when he competes in the 200m in his disability category.