Susanna Kallur almost ready to return – European Athletics (EAA) – News

Sweden's reigning European 100m hurdles champion Susanna Kallur is back in almost full training again after missing the whole of last year while recovering from a stress fracture on her shin.

Her last competitive race was at the Zurich Golden League meeting in August 2008.

Kallur had been suffering from hamstring problems at the end of that summer season, which had caused her to pull up in the 2008 Olympic Games 100m hurdles final.

She was later diagnosed with a stress fracture and, in a delicate operation in November 2008, she had metal plates inserted into her shin which were then removed in June last year.

"My leg seems to have finally agreed to let me run fast again. Running over the hurdles, it feels like they are OK. At least I hope so, but they (her legs) feel fine," said the 29-year-old hurdler earlier this week, writing on her website www.sannakallur.se.

"I have run pretty hard for four weeks now. Since it fits in well (with her training plans) I'll give my body a little breathing space before I move on to the next period of preparation for the summer."

Kallur admits that her recovery and rehabilitation has been painful at times but since the start of the year she has been gradually feeling less pain in her leg.

To reassure her many fans that she is well on the road to recovery, after spending January in South Africa warm weather training ("To swap minus 30 degrees for 30 degrees above zero was delicious.") Kallur has posted videos of her training and running over hurdles on her website.

Having not run any races for almost two years, giving the 2010 indoor season a miss as a precaution, Kallur is making no concrete guarantees about being able to defend her title at the European Athletics Championships this summer, which will be held in Barcelona between 26 July and 1 August, but she is quietly confident that she'll be on the plane to Spain.

In Göteborg four years ago, Kallur ran a brilliant race to win her European crown in front of a home crowd in 12.59, leaving Germany's Kirsten Bolm and Ireland's Derval O'Rourke having to settle for joint silver medals in a distant 12.72.

Among Kallur's other accolades are two European Athletics Indoor Championships 60m hurdles gold medals and she also set the current  world indoor 60m hurdles record of 7.68 in February 2008. Earlier in her career, she was also the 2001 and 2003 European Athletics under 23 100m hurdles champion.

European Athletics (EAA) – News