Susanna Kallur

[highschoolcoach]

Good article from IAAF website (www.iaaf.org):

Kallur in pursuit of record wishes for a longer season - IAAF Golden League
Sunday 16 September 2007
Berlin, Germany - While the end of the season cannot come quick enough for the athletes who are tired, for Susanna Kallur it is coming too soon. In the DKB-ISTAF Berlin - IAAF Golden League - meeting today, Kallur edged closer to the Swedish national record for the 100m Hurdles but she has only one more race remaining in which to break it.

Kallur continued her brilliant form since the disappointment of finishing fourth in the World Championships, in Osaka, as she recorded a personal best 12.49sec for victory in the final leg of the 2007 Golden League. It was Kallur's third successive Golden League victory since Osaka and her fourth in all in unbeaten streak since leaving Japan.

The Swedish record stands at 12.47 to Ludmila Engquist, the former Russian, who recorded the time twice, in Atlanta in 1996 and in Seville in 1999. "The Swedish record is only two-hundredths of a second away," an excited 26-year-old Kallur said. "I cannot deny that it is close and I really want to beat it. I wish the season was a little bit longer."

So, if Kallur is to break the record this year, she will have to do so at the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, in Stuttgart, Germany, next weekend. She said that would her last race of the season. But she must have every chance of attaining the record in Stuttgart, judging by her form in the Golden League, in which she has won races in Zurich, Brussels and Berlin by increasingly wider margins and faster times.

Having set a personal best of 12.51 in the final in Osaka, where she was leading until the eighth hurdle and was apparently impeded by Michelle Perry, of the United States, on the last flight, Kallur went on to Zurich for a victory in 12.66 then to Brussels for a win in 12.52. Between Zurich and Brussels, she chalked up another win in the Sweden versus Finland match.

In Zurich, Kallur won by 0.02, in Brussels by 0.09, and in Berlin by 0.18sec, on each occasion with Perry in the field. Any chance of a challenge in Osaka by Kallur to Perry's World title evaporated as the Swedish management did not see the evidence they believed would have confirmed the incident until it was too late to protest.

It is an issue that Kallur has put behind her. "I have put it to rest," Kallur said. "What can I do? There is nothing more to say. The morning after (the Osaka final) I was OK because I did a personal best, and I have never been in the final before, so I was happy with my performance."

"I was close to a medal and I feel I can be there. It wasn't to be that time but I am happy I am running really well now." Asked if her post-Osaka form was compensation for missing a World Championships medal, she replied: "Yes, it is really satisfying. I'm very happy about this and my hurdling is getting better and better. It's amazing."

"I had quite a good start today and the rhythm is perfect for me right now. I touched the eighth hurdle so I think I could still improve. I was mentally prepared to run so many races within a few days so I did not feel too tired after Brussels. I will just try to stick to this really nice rhythm I have found in these last few days."

David Powell for the IAAF

 

[Deadlift]

She is an incredible athlete. She also exudes charisma and charm.

A fine example of European refinement.

 

[mastermulti]

surely she'd have a good 100m time in her

 

[highschoolcoach]

Susanna Kaollur is now #2 all-time for the 60 meter hurdles.

Kallur: 'It's really nice to be hurdling well'
Tuesday 5 February 2008
With her scintillating 7.72 performance in Stuttgart on Saturday, Susanna Kallur took sole possession of the No. 2 spot among 60m hurdlers all-time. Yet while she refuses to make any solid predictions, the 26-year-old Swede concedes that there may be just a little bit more in the tank to again threaten Ludmila Engqvist's 7.69 World record set 18 years ago.

"If I'm on a really fast track, and I get everything right, I think there's a little bit more," said Kallur, who is employed in the Corporate Information Department of Ã…F, the newly announced title sponsor for the Golden League. "And you need to do everything right when you're on the world's fastest track."



Suzanna Kallur celebrating gold in Gothenburg
(Getty Images)


Entering the season with a 7.80 career best - and national record - set at the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in 2005, Kallur has been on a tear in 2008 since her season's debut in Glasgow last month, where she narrowly missed her PB with a 7.81 dash. Three days later, she improved to 7.75 in Gothenburg, moving into a tie in the No. 6 spot among performers all-time. While marginally slower, Kallur believes that run to be superior to her latest national record in Stuttgart.

"I think it wasn't as good as the one in Gothenburg, but the track (in Stuttgart) is faster. I think I had quite a bad start. But it was a good run after the bad start." Underscoring the speed of the Stuttgart surface, as well as her phenomenal form, was her 7.78 in the prelims, a time surpassed by just nine others.

Happy with the technical aspects of her race this season, Kallur said, "It's really nice to be hurdling well." That alone, she said, is the primary difference between this season and the last few.



Susanna Kallur dips for gold - Madrid
(Getty Images)


"I haven't had any injuries so far so I've been able to run the hurdles all winter," she said. "Last year I was injured so I couldn't run the hurdles. So my technique is much better."

Kallur is planning a busy run-up to the World Indoor Championships, with appearances scheduled for Karlsruhe's LBBW Meeting on 10-February, the GE Galan Meeting in Stockholm on 21-February, and the Swedish national championships two days later prior to the World Indoor Championships.

Twice the European Indoor champion in the event, and the continent's reigning champion outdoors, Kallur is well on track to claim her first major international title in Valencia next month. Two years ago in Moscow, she took bronze in 7.87, in one of the closest World Indoor Championships finals ever. But is she running too fast too soon?



Fun in the rain! Susanna Kallur taking the Swedish title
(Hasse Sjogren)


Her answer was unequivocal.

"No, the faster the better. I'm not in heavy training at the moment, but I haven't tried to make a peak yet."

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

 

[Vindicator]

Susanna has a twin sister, Jenny who also runs. Although Susanna has the edge in the hurdles and longer sprints, Jenny has a better PB at 60 meters.

Jenny Kallur performances

Here's a video of both sisters in a race:

Goteburg race in 2005

 

[mastermulti]

Be still my heart.

Now there's some sisters I'd like to train with...... and didn't Kluft close
quickly.
There's some other good footage of her hurdles races and another as she
wins a 60m race in Britain on youtube

 

[jacknyc]

Susanna just set a world record today in the 60m Hurdles at a meet in Germany!
Hopefully, she wins the gold at the Beijing Olympics.

 

[highschoolcoach]

Sunday, 10 February 2008 NEWS FLASH - Kallur flies to World Indoor record for 60m Hurdles

Susanna Kallur punches the air with delight after her PB in Berlin (Getty Images)

relnews Karlsruhe, Germany - Sweden's European indoor and outdoor sprint hurdles champion sped to a new World Indoor 60m Hurdles record** of 7.68 seconds at today's the Karlsruhe BW Meeting - IAAF Indoor Permit meeting.

A feeling of "World record" was in the air all week before the the Karlsruhe meeting , as Sweden's Susanna Kallur and Dayron Robles of Cuba both had shown they were in range of historical performances in their respective hurdle events.

It was Kallur who took the spotlight this afternoon, with a 7.68 clocking which erased the 7.69 world indoor standard set by Ludmila Engquist, then running as Ludmila Narozhilenko of the Soviet Union, in a 1990 competition in Chelyabinsk.

Behind Kallur was LoLo Jones of the US, who recorded a 7.77 PB to become the second-best indoor hurdler from that country. Only Gail Devers, at 7.74, has run faster.

Kallur came out of the blocks well, and she took a perceptible lead right at the first barrier. Her computer-perfect form clipped off the remaining four hurdles faster than anyone before, and one of the oldest track world records on the books finally tumbled.

Although never really in range of an upset, Jones still stayed close to the Swede throughout and moved into the number-nine position of all time in the event with her splendid performance.

Damu Cherry of the US finished third at 7.89.

Ed Gordon for the IAAF

A full meeting report will follow later after the conclusion of the meeting.

**NB. World Indoor record subject to the usual ratification procedures

Also, glad to see Lolo Jones do so well.

 

[highschoolcoach]

Sell-out crowd are rewarded with a special night in Stockholm's Globe

Susanna Kallur in the Globe Arena in Stockholm (Hasse Sjögren)

relnewsStockholm, Sweden - For the 8th straight year the Stockholm Globe Arena was sold out - 10,500 spectators - for the GE Galan - IAAF Indoor Permit meeting - and those that came to see new World 60m Hurdles record holder** Susanna Kallur perform her magic once more this winter were not disappointed.

Despite a somewhat sluggish start and despite not (as has been her habit) accelerating away from everybody else within the first few steps (Kallur didn't get the outright lead until after the second hurdle) she won by over one and a half metres. And the explanation for that sizeable winning margin certainly was not that her opponents had any major problems: Actually Josephine Onyia (7.91), Lacena Golding-Clarke (7.93) och Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (7.93) all improved their seasonal best marks.

Kallur's winning time 7.74 lowered the arena record by 0.06 and missed her own World record by the same margin. But she did admit afterwards that she had begun to feel in her hamstrings the effect of the string of fast races. Thus she was now looking forward to giving her body some rest and easy training before Valencia. The national championships on Sunday in Malmö is Kallur's only remaining competition before the World Indoor Championships.

 

[white lightning]

Kallur has been the highlite of the indoor track season. I have been very dissapointed in alot of the guys we follow. The injury bug has hit some of these guys and girls pretty hard.

Outdoors should be really good however in an Olympic Year. I believe that alot of sprinters both male and female are just going to focus on outdoors. That is a smart decision in my opinion.

As far as the 100 meters goes, there are three male sprinters that I think have a chance to approach the 10 second barrier. Craig Pickering, Michael LeBlanc and Dallas Robinson. These guys are our best hope to make a final. Matic Osovnikar could suprise us again however.

Let's hope some of the other guys get involved to like Paul Hession, Andrey Yepishin, Dariusz Kuc, Shirvo, Macro, Tobias Unger, and a few others.

 

[white tornado]

susanna hit the first hurdle in the semis and fell so she won't be in the final.