Horn wants to dip under 11s at the World Championships in London
Carina Horn hopes to eventually reach her dream at the World Championships in London by running faster than 11 seconds in the 100m.
Frustrated spelt in capital letters would be the best way to describe how South Africa’s foremost female sprinter, Carina Horn, feels about how her season played out so far.
The Tuks/HPC-athlete raced only half as many races as she did before last year’s Olympic Games in Rio. Planes are the main source of her frustration because due to unexpected delays she got regularly stranded on her way to meetings. Horn is not quite sure how many hours she ended up spending at various airports, but it is far more than she would want to.
But being a realist Horn realises that she has got to let bygones be bygones and focus on what matters, and that is to break 11 seconds at the World Championships in London.
“It may sound like a contradiction, but in a way, it might just be a good thing that I am frustrated because I got something to prove and hungry to race,” said Horn.
Horn will line up in the 100m heats on Saturday morning (from 12:45) as the 20th fastest sprinter having run a season’s best time of 11.10s. She is quietly confident of making it through to the semi-finals.
“The true challenge will be Sunday’s semi-final. Judging by what has happened at the 2015 World Championships I will need to run a time faster than 11 seconds to have any chance of qualifying for the final. In Beijing the slowest time to qualify for the final was 10.97s,” said Horn whose best time currently is 11.06s.
She did run a time 11.05s in July in a meeting in Northern France, but the wind from behind was too strong.
Asked what would happen if she should run a time faster than 11 seconds in the semi-final, won’t it feel like mission accomplished as she will be the first South African female sprinter to do so?
“If it happens I will have to keep my emotions intact. I am certainly not competing at the World Championships to run a fast time in the semi-final. My goal is to qualify for the final. That is what I have worked and trained for. There will be ample time to celebrate a fast time afterwards.”
The Tuks/HPC-athlete fully realises that every hundredth of second counts in the short sprint that is why her Austrian coach, Rainer Schopf, spent a lot of time during training to ensure that she of to a fast start as it is where the race could be won or lost.
“We also focussed quite a bit on the phase between 20 and 40 metres because often that is where I tend to lose out big time. I think I am now capable of keeping on to accelerate through those vital few metres reaching my top speed at 60 metres and maintaining it to the finish,” Horn concluded.
Elaine Thompson, the Olympic champion over both short sprints in Rio last year, is the favourite to take her first world title. The 25-year-old with a best time of 10.70s from 2016, top the world list with 10.71s set in Kingston. She also notched up four victories in IAAF Diamond League Meetings.
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