Susanna Kallur

Susanna Elisabeth Kallur (pronounced|sɵˈsanːa ˈkalːɵr in Swedish) (born February 16, 1981) is a Swedish athlete competing mainly in sprint hurdles. She has won several international medals including the gold medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2006 European Athletics Championships. Kallur holds the world indoor record for 60 m hurdles.

Biography

Born in Huntington, New York, U.S., Kallur is now a resident of Falun, Dalarnas län, and trains with Falu IK. Her twin sister Jenny, who is 4 minutes older, is also a 100m hurdler. They are daughters of the ice hockey player Anders Kallur, who won four Stanley Cup championships with the New York Islanders, and his wife Lisa.

She is 1.69m (5'6") and weighs 61kg (134lbs, 9st 8lbs). She is coached by Torbjörn Eriksson and also by Karin Torneklint. [ [http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/nytt-traenarupplaegg-foer-susanna-och-jenny-kallur-187426] New coach]

Often called 'Sanna' in Sweden (as are many other Susannas).

As she was born in the USA, she has dual-citizenship. She studied at and competed for University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [http://fightingillini.cstv.com/sports/w-track/mtt/kallur_susanna00.html] Her Illinois U profile] [ [http://publicaffairs.uiuc.edu/facts/promalumni.htm Prominent Alumni] , uiuc.edu]

In January 2007 she won the Jerring Award, voted by the people of Sweden to be the best sports person or team in Sweden at the time. Number two in the vote was the Swedish national men's ice hockey team, which won Olympic gold and World Championships in 2006.

Susanna and her twin sister Jenny have also done gymnastics and used to be members of the Swedish Junior National Team.

Career

Kallur made a breakthrough by winning the 100m hurdles at the 2000 World Junior Championship. She then initially failed to make an impact on senior competition, failing to make the final of two World Championships and then the 2004 Olympic Games. She did improve her personal best to 12.67s.

In 2005 Susanna won her first senior gold medal at the 2005 European indoor Championships in Madrid. But once again she failed to reach the final of the World Championships in Helsinki.She came third in the 2006 World Indoor Championships.

Kallur's biggest achievement to date was winning the 100m hurdles at the 2006 European Athletics Championships, in front of her home crowd in Gothenburg. She won in 12.59s ahead of Kirsten Bolm and Derval O'Rourke.

Kallur retained her title at the 2007 European Indoor Championships.

She finished only fourth in the 100m hurdles at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka despite running a personal best of 12.51s. However, the Swedish team had grounds for appeal, as eventual winner Michelle Perry had crossed over into Kallur's lane. Indeed they did register an appeal but after the time limit had elapsed. After the World Championships, Kallur won the three remaining Golden League events in Berlin, Zürich and Brussels, posting a personal best in the German capital and beating Perry in all three races.

After posting several fast times throughout the beginning of the 2008 indoor season, Kallur broke the 60 m hurdles indoor world record, posting a time of 7.68 at a meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany on 10 February 2008. Kallur was then the clear favourite for the World Indoor title in Valencia and won her heat in 7.87 seconds, but did not start the semi-finals, pulling out injured.

Susanna fell at the first hurdle of the 2nd semi-final of the 100m women's hurdle event at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Best performances

2005

*2005 European Indoor Championships (Madrid)::(60m Hurdles) Gold medal (7.80), making it a double win for the twins.

2006

*2006 World Indoor Championships (Moscow)::(60m Hurdles) Bronze medal
*2006 European Championships (Göteborg)::(100m Hurdles) Gold medal

2007

*2007 European Indoor Championships (Birmingham)::(60m Hurdles) Gold medal

Personal bests

*60 metres: 7.24 secs (Birmingham, 3 March 2007)
*60 metres hurdles: 7.68 secs (Karlsruhe, 10 February 2008) World record
*100 metres: 11.30 secs (Malmö, 22 August 2006)
*100 metres hurdles: 12.49 secs (Berlin, 16 September 2007)
*200 metres: 23.32 (Gothenburg, 28 August 2005)
*800 metres: 2:27.87 (Huddinge, 6 September 1998) [http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athlete%3D134743/] IAAF results]

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.sannakallur.se/ Official site Susanna Kallur]
* [http://susannakallurfan.spaces.live.com/ fansite Susanna Kallur]
*
* [http://fightingillini.cstv.com/sports/w-track/mtt/kallur_susanna00.html Susanna Kallur's profile at Fightingillini.cstv.com]
* [http://usuarios.lycos.es/sandrakba/susannakallur.htm Susanna Kallur Pictures]