Carina Horn returned after a two-year gap to snatch a narrow victory in the women’s 100m at the third meet of the grand prix series in Potchefstroom on Wednesday night.

She clocked 11.50 sec to edge Phindile Kubheka by two-hundredths of a second.

“I wasn’t happy with the time, I was happy with the win,” said Horn, who was banned after a doping offence. “It was emotional since I arrived yesterday, coming to the stadium. I’m grateful to be back, it was moments like these that I took for granted.”

Kenya’s muscle-bound Ferdinand Omanyala won the men’s 100m in 10.11 to beat Clarence Munyai, second in 10.20. Omanyala, holder of the 9.77 African record, will take on Akani Simbine in the 100m in Germiston next week.

Munyai, who recently posted a 100m best of 10.04 sec, said he didn’t put his race together as he’d planned. “I didn’t execute properly. I was running with the African record-holder and it was a little scary.”

He will move up to the 200m next week. “I’m excited to do the 200m,” said Munyai, holder of the 19.69 national record in that event. “It’s going to be a good one.”

Luxolo Adams, one of his main rivals in the longer sprint, easily won the men’s 200m in 20.28, with 100m ace Simbine finishing a distant seventh in 21.08. Simbine, fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, will have some work to do before he does the 100m in Germiston next week. But he said he wasn’t concerned, pointing out he was comfortable with where his training was so early in the season. 

Adams chuckled afterwards, saying he nearly tripped on the curve when he kicked himself in the calf. But he recovered well to show good form and finish strongly.

Taylon Biedlt upstaged Zeney van der Walt and Wenda Nel to claim a tight 400m hurdles, crossing first in 55.80. Van der Walt was one-hundredth of a second back and Nel a further three-hundredths of a second behind.

Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori, a member of the Olympic silver medal-winning 4x400m relay team at the Tokyo Games, achieved the only world championship qualifying time of the evening, going 44.88.

His effort left him prostrate on the track and he had to be stretchered off.

Deline Mpiti won the women’s 400m in a respectable 51.73.

One of the best performances of the day came in the pre-programme, where schoolboy Brian Raats won the men’s high jump in 2.26m, placing him tied seventh on SA’s all-time list.

Caster Semenya won the women’s 2,000m in 5 min 50.39 sec, Jovan van Vuuren took the men’s long jump in 8.12m, Soks Zazini finished first in the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.84 and Kyle Blignaut won the men’s shot put with a heave of 20.13m.

“I’m not happy with that,” said Blignaut, sixth at the Olympics. “A few technical things haven’t come together this season yet.”