Susanna Kallur won the women's 100 metres hurdles at the European championships yesterday to become the first Swede in 44 years to capture an outdoor international championship sprint gold.

The 25-year-old completed the distance in 12.59 seconds. Irishwoman Derval O'Rourke was awarded second place despite clocking an identical time of 12.72 seconds as Germany's Kirsten Bolm, who was declared third.

The move prompted the German federation to file a protest, leaving Kallur unable to celebrate her win on the podium as the medals ceremony was postponed until the dispute had been resolved.

Kallur's run was a fraction slower than her 12.52 run in Rome last month, this year's fastest European time.

"It's unbelievable," said Kallur, who also won gold at the 2005 European indoor championships in Madrid. "I would like to thank the crowd. I felt like I had extra muscle fibres because of them."

The last Swede to win a sprint gold at an international outdoors championship was Owe Jonsson, who won the men's 200 metres in the 1962 European Champion-ships in Belgrade.

After crossing the line, Bolm's name first appeared in second place on the stadium's results board before it was changed to show O'Rourke in the silver medal position.

Susanna's twin Jenny Kallur, who won the silver behind her sister in Madrid last year, had to settle for seventh place after finishing in 12.94.