Carina: A great feeling to break SA 100m record
JOHANNESBURG: It took three years of grinding and fighting for Carina Horn to finally make her breakthrough and be the sole owner of the South African women’s 100m record.
Horn blasted out of the blocks in her semi-final on the first day of the South African track and field championships to cross the line in a time of 11.03 seconds, knocking 0.03 seconds off the 28-year-old record first set by Evette de Klerk back in 1990.
“It is a great feeling, I am really excited, I’ve been waiting for a few years to race on my home track and I am glad I could do it here,” Horn said.
For Horn, this is merely a stepping stone towards her goal of becoming the first SA female to dip below 11 seconds.
“If the weather is fine, hopefully, I can get to sub-11 because that is my goal, I feel it is coming now that I have the record,” Horn said.
“I targeted this race because the final (tonight) is a bit late and we don’t know what the weather would be doing.”
Earlier, teenage sensation Thando Dlodlo raced to a new SA junior 100m record with a time of 10.11 seconds in his semi-final. The 18-yearold Dlodldo sent out an early warning during the morning heats when he clocked 10.15 to finish behind national senior record-holder Akani Simbine.
“The goal was just to break the record in the 100m and then hopefully in the 200m so I am happy,” said Dlodlo who added his second SA junior record as part of a junior 4x100m team that smashed the previous national mark by 0.13 as he crossed the line with a time of 39.46. World Youth 200m champion Retshidisitswe Mlenga started before handing over to Thembo Monareng with Malisela Senona making the final exchange with Dlodlo, who raced home with the best time since 2008. Simbine pulled out of the 100m semi-finals as a precaution after he felt some tightness in his hamstring.
The 100m semi-finals produced the best set of results ever at the national championships with three athletes posting times of 10.10 seconds or faster.
Simon Magakwe posted his fastest time since 2014 when he became the first South African to dip below 10 seconds at the championships. He beat an in-form Anaso Jobodwana in their heat, posting his fourth fastest time ever of 10.09.
The semi-finals, however, belonged to stalwart sprinter Roscoe Engel, who posted a new personal best of 10.06.
A SA men’s 4x100m relay team pulled out of the final event of the evening with Simbine’s absence from the 100m semi-finals earlier in the day possibly playing a role.