Carina Horn still on track to Olympics next year
Carina Horn believes that 2016 will be her great year, after she equaled the South African record in the 100m in July this year.
“I am capable of running faster times in 2016.”
Carina Horn firmly believes this and judging by what she has achieved this season there is good reason to take her seriously when she talks about going faster over 100 metres. It has been about 10 years since any South African female sprinter has been able to consistently run times faster than 11.20s in the 100 metres.
Horn’s big highlight for the season was when she equalled Evette de Klerk’s 25-year-old record in the 100 metres. In Madrid she ran 11.06 in the heats, which was the fastest time run by a South African athlete at sea level. To prove that she is no one-hit wonder she ran 11.10 in the finals an hour later.
At the World Championships in Beijing Horn ran 11.08s in the heats but unfortunately the wind from behind was too strong for the time to be officially recognized. In the semi-finals she ran 11.15s in a slight headwind which was the 17th fastest time. Another good performance was when she ran the 100 metres in a time of 11.19 seconds (-1.2m/s wind) at the Gyulai István Memorial Meeting in Budapest.
According to Horn she will be chasing hundredths of seconds in her build-up to the Olympic Games in Rio next year. Her first challenge will be to become the sole holder of the SA 100 metre record. To accomplish this she has to improve by only 0.01 seconds, but her main challenge will be to break through the magical 11 seconds barrier. If she should be able to accomplish this feat, her place in the Olympic final will be almost guaranteed.
0.06 seconds may not seem like an insurmountable challenge, but in sprinting at the highest level it can sometimes take a year or more to achieve. Since last year Horn was able to improve her best time from 11.17s to 11.06s. This means that she has improved by 0.11 seconds in 365 days. It could take another year to improve by the same margin and it must be remembered that in sprinting there are no guarantees.
“Rainer Schopf (coach) and I know that I am capable of running faster times. It is just a matter of putting together the perfect race at the right time. My start, which used to be a weakness, has definitely improved this season but it can still be better. The best part of my sprint at the moment is between 20 to 40 metres. I need to work on becoming faster over the first 20 metres. Once at full speed I am able to keep it to the end. Another aspect on which Rainer and I are working is for me to relax during the race. They say a relaxed sprinter is a fast sprinter,” said the Tuks athlete.
Apart from being prepared for the Olympic Games, achieving a good result at next year’s World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon (17-20 March) is also an important goal for Horn. She had a successful indoor campaign this season. Of the five races in which she competed she won two and finished second twice. More importantly, she twice managed to improve on her own SA 60m record by running times of 7.21s in Dusseldorf and 7.20s in Berlin.
But at the moment running fast times are not Horn’s major concern.
