Championship record for Antyukh

“I'm shocked by myself,” said the champion. “What a result! Incredible and unbelievable! Just a year ago I changed from 400m to the hurdles.”

Silver went to the fast finishing Vania Stambolova of Bulgaria while Britain's Perri Shakes-Drayton forced her way from fifth to third in the finishing straight to snatch bronze.

“I thought I could win today,” said the Bulgarian. “But Natalya was too fast for me.”

“I was very confident in my possibilities,” said Shakes-Drayton. “I finally did it with the bronze medal. I cannot ask for more.”

For Antyukh the conversion is complete. In 2004 she lifted bronze over the flat 400m, and then opted to try the hurdles. In 2009 she was timed at a lowly 58.30 but progressed to 54.11 by the year's end. She arrived in Barcelona with the fastest time in Europe of 54.00 but she leaves the 11th fastest woman of all-time.

Stambalova has always switched between the flat and the hurdles. In 2006 she lifted the European title on the flat, a year after winning Balkan hurdles gold. After serving a doping suspension between 2007 and 2009 she added the world student games title last year. This year she has competed frequently over both hurdles and the flat. With a time of 53.82 she has reduced her best by 0.73 and set a Bulgarian record.

Shakes-Drayton, the European under-23 champion in Kaunas last summer, reduced her personal best once again in the final leaving it at 54.18 after clocking 54.73 in the semis.

The more fancied Zuzana Heijnova of the Czech Republic was for an agonising time in the bronze medal position until Shakes-Drayton forced her way past, the Czech eventually finishing fourth in 54.30.

The defending champion, Yevgeniya Isakova, made a brave attempt to defend her crown from lane eight, but in the end only came away with a season's best.

Source: european-athletics.org