South Africa’s Carina Horn flew to a new South African 100-metre best on Friday… the only problem was a blasted illegal tailwind, writes Mark Etheridge.

Horn was running at the Sotteville les Rouen national meeting in France.

She clocked 11.05, which is 0.05ec inside the current best, held jointly by herself and Evette de Klerk, the latter having first run it back in 1990.

The following wind in France was 2.6 metres per second, 0.6m/sec above the legal limit.

‘I only decided to go and race on Thursday,’ said Horn. ‘But the travelling was a nightmare. I was meant to fly from Austria to France at 10pm, and then it was cancelled. So I had to walk around what seemed like the entire airport and then stood in a queue for two and a half hours to get a flight the next day.

‘I only got back to the hotel at 1am and was up at 5am for my next flight. I got to Paris at 9am, then waited three hours at the airport, got to the hotel at 2pm and raced a few hours later.

‘But I’m still very happy with my actual race, if only that wind wasn’t so strong. That has to be one of my toughest travel schedules so far.’

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Belgium there were more wins for South African athletes.

Competing in Kortrijik, Justine Palframan won both the 200 and 400m events.

Palframan (pictured in photo-finish action above), who spent some time in Jamaica brushing up her sprinting skills, clocked 22.84 and 52.47 to beat Jamaicans Shavine Hodges and Jungle Bromfield in the respective races.

There was also a nice win for Palframan’s fellow KwaZulu-Natal athlete, Gena Lofstrand, who clocked 2:02.05 to win the 800m, while Anuschke Nice ran a 2:06.70.

And Olympic long jumper Lynique Prinsloo won her event in 6.30m as she continues to find her rhythm.

Distance runner Nolene Conrad took seventh in the 5000m. She ran a 16:04.22 after hoping to go sub 16sec. The race was won by Kenya’s Lilian Rengeruk in 14:44.27.

Meanwhile, young Cape Town sprinter Tamzin Thomas is lapping up her European experience.

She raced mid-week in Celle Ligure, Italy. Originally planning to run the 100/200m double, she only ran the 100m and ended up winning in 11.64sec.

‘It was a good race, but I wish there was more competition to run a fast time. I definitely need to work on my first 30m to get more power out of the blocks,’ she said.

‘Now my next race will be on Wednesday in Lignano, the last of my races in Europe.’

Based in Gemona, Italy, where many of the South Africans are located, she’s loving life right now. ‘I really love the environment. Being around the top athletes and performers of SA. Gemona is great. There’s nothing to do but train, eat and sleep, and everything’s just a bicycle ride away.’

Also competing in Celle Ligure was SA long jumper Dylan Cotter, who had a best of 7.47 on the day.

Picture of Horn competing in Hungary last week courtesy of Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images