JOHANNESBURG – The legacy of Carina Horn, South Africa’s fastest woman, is under a cloud after she was provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned substances on Friday.
The first South African woman to dip below 11 seconds in the 100m dash, Horn will miss out on this year’s International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships after an adverse analytical finding in a sample she provided.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) which operates the IAAF’s anti-doping programme yesterday revealed that Horn had been provisionally suspended for the presence of the growth hormone Ibutamoren and LGD-4033.
Horn, 30, was suspended pending an IAAF disciplinary tribunal outcome.
Her suspension comes a month after Springbok wing Aphiwe Dyantyi tested positive for multiple anabolic steroids and metabolites. He was charged with a doping offence after his B-sample returned the same results.
Horn is the first South African woman to dip below 11 seconds over 100m, when she clocked a new record of 10.98 at the 2018 Doha Diamond League meeting. She chopped 0.05s off her previous mark she set at the SA championships where she broke Evette de Klerk’s 28-year record.
She posted a world qualifying time of 11.01 in Madrid last month, which was also her second-fastest time ever, and the 11th best time in the world.
SA Institute for Drug-Free Sports (SAIDS) boss Khalid Galant said Horn could still request for her B-sample to be tested, “but she can’t go to Qatar”.