Sweden's second lady of athletics, Susanna Kallur, was very much to the fore this morning, as she set neasily the fastest qualifying time, her 12.66sec taking heat four with some ease from Delloreen Ennis-London (JAM, 12.74).

The 26-year-old European champion's time was 0.06sec faster than that of Michelle Perry (USA), the winner of this title in Helsinki two years ago.

Kallur, though, did not use the fact to state any superiority - she simply could not race any more easily. "In the hurdles, it is difficult to save energy in the rounds as you can do in the sprints," she explained.

Perry had won the first heat, while Nevin Yanit (TUR) took the second heat in 12.78, from Canada's Angela Whyte (12.81).

But it was the third heat where there was some frisson of excitement, with the 2003 champion, Perdita Felicien pitched against the 2007 US champion, Ginny Powell. On this occasion, the Canadian came out on top, running 12.73 to Powell's 12.76.

The heats generated national records for Belgium (Eline Berings, 12.97 for fifth in heat 4) and Slovakia (Miriam Bobkova, 13.04, also from the fourth heat), but neither were good enough to progress any further here, where Lacena Golding-Clarke's 12.92 was the "slowest" of the fastest losers to progress into the last 16, as the hurdlers confirmed the opinions of the weekend that the Nagai Stadium's Mondo surface is quick.

"Not too much effort was needed for 12.72," Perry said, "and that proves how fast the track is."

Osaka 2007 News Team/sd