Susanna Kallur leads the field in the 60m Hurdles at the SamsungGalan in the Scandinavium Arena (© Hasse Sjögren)
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 ÅF, 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.”
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.
“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?
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
