Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 68, March 2015 | Page 17

years. “In 2012 I decided to change coaches and my new coach was in Austria,
so now I live in Europe around five months a year. My lifestyle is all based
around my training, which is normally five days a week of up to six or seven
hours! The training is hard and very technical, which is why we plan my races so
carefully, and why I didn’t travel to compete in South Africa at all in the past two
years. Sure, there are days where I miss SA, my family and friends, and my Mum’s
food, but I know why I came here and it’s worth the sacrifice.”

ENTER NOW

Getting used to the
top step of the podium

SPORTING CHOICES

Carina was born in Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal and attended primary school
there, but completed her schooling in Gauteng when the family moved. At
school she played provincial hockey, captained the school cricket and tennis
teams, and tried her hand at various other sports as well, and it was only at
the end of Matric that she decided to focus on her sprinting. “Athletics wasn’t
the sport I was the best at, but I chose it because it was a new challenge, and
no team – everything depends on me. So at the beginning of 2009, when I
began studying at Tuks, I first tried the 400m, but decided to rather focus on
the 200m and was selected for the World Student Champs SA team competing
in Belgrade.”
Success quickly followed as she won the SA Champs titles for both the 100m
and 200m in 2011, but since then she has not competed much in SA due to
her decision to move to Europe, and it was only in 2014 that her name once
again came to the fore when she ran her 7.28 in Vienna to qualify for the
World Indoor Champs in Sopot, Poland, where she made it to the semi-final
round, which was run on her birthday, 9 March. That set her up for her 11.17
performance in her first outdoor race of the European season, in Madrid in
June, followed by a wind-assisted 11.16 in St Polten in Austria in July.

WORLD CHAMPS GOALS

Looking ahead, Carina says she is motivated to chase after the SA records for
60m and 100m, but her main objective right now is qualifying for various SA
teams. “My indoor season is not that long this year. We made it short with only
four or five races, but aiming to be as fast as possible! Then I will come back
at the end of February to prepare for the outdoor season, including running in
SA for the first time in three years. I want to qualify for the World Champs in
Beijing later this year, then also for the World Indoor Champs early next year in
Portland in the USA, and of course, the main goal is to qualify for the 2016 Rio
Olympics.”
“I have goals to be an Olympic medallist and World Champion, but talking
about it won’t help me achieve it, and that’s why I’m so focused, and try to
do everything I can to be the best that I possibly can. I would rather let my
performances do the talking, and when I achieve my dreams and visions, then
I can talk big.”

Images: Courtesy Carina Horn

Relay duty for
Tuks before
moving to
Austria

Deloitte Pretoria Marathon 2015
Race for success
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Enter online now at www.entrytime.co.za
A Comrades and Old Mutual Two Oceans qualifier
Online entries close 15 February 2015
Number pick-up details on www.entrytime.co.za
NO number pick-ups on race day

Venue
Pretoria High School Old Boys Club
Hofmeyr Park
c/o Kings Highway and Queens Crescent
Lynnwood
GPS Coordinates: S25.45.64.4 E28.15.22.8
Entries at Shops
T-Shirts to the first 5,500 entries

Pretoria
- The Sweatshop

[phone]

(Southdowns Shopping Centre Irene)

- Run-A-Way Sport
[phone]
(302 Freesia Street Lynnwood Ridge)
- Running Inn
[phone]
(C/O Duncan and Lynnwood Rd)

Johannesburg
[phone]
- The Sweatshop (Dunkeld)
(Cnr Jan Smuts Ave & Bompass Rd Dunkeld)
- The Sweatshop (Bedfordview) [phone]
(Shop 5 Bedford Arcade)
For race information, please visit:
www.deloitte.com/za/ptamarathon
www.raceresults.co.za
#deloittemarathon

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