Greek hurdles questions over win

Greece's newly-crowned Olympic champion Fani Halkia faced intense questioning about her sudden improvement in form after last night's 400 metres hurdles victory.

The world's media has become very sceptical about Greek success after the drug test scandal involving reigning Olympic 200m champion Kostas Kenteris and his training partner Katerina Thanou just before the Games.

Halkia, a virtual unknown a year ago who ran the sixth fastest time in history on her way to the title, has lowered her personal best by around three-and-a-half seconds, a massive improvement in the past 12 months. But after delighting the packed Olympic Stadium crowd last night, she said: "All Greek athletes need is Greek soul and a lot of hard work. Once you have that, you can come first."

One Greek journalist even tried to change the direction of the probing questioning yesterday by saying it was time to "talk about nice things".

However, Halkia went on to defend Kenteris and Thanou, who withdrew from the Games after being accused of missing drug tests.

She said: "They were put against the wall, there was a firing squad and people imagined the wildest things.

"I know how hard they worked. It's a real injustice, people accused them without any proof. There was no positive drugs test."

Halkia won last night's final in 52.82 seconds to land the title by more than half a second, the largest margin of victory in the last five Olympics.

The 25-year-old, a former high jumper who quit athletics and became a journalist before making a dramatic hurdling comeback, could only manage a personal best of 56.40secs a year ago.

That is a time which would have left Halkia outside the first eight in any 400m hurdles Olympic final stretching back to