Caroline Nytra of Germany. (Picture Alliance)

“To have a realistic medal chance in Barcelona, there has to be a “6” after the full-stop,” said Germany's new sprint hurdles star, Carolin Nytra, back in June. She shocked herself and her coach in the Lausanne Diamond League when she dipped under that two weeks later in Lausanne, improving dramatically from a previous best of 12.77 to a world-class 12.57.

That time placed her firmly in the favourite's berth for the European title ahead of Russian Tatyana Dektyareva who is now over a tenth of a second slower on the season's rankings. Not since the old GDR days has Germany had a sprint hurdler as fast as Carolin Nytra.

Nytra has improved her personal best four years in a row, but it is this year that suddenly she has looked capable of challenging the best in the world. In Lausanne she was a hair's breadth away from defeating Canada's Lopes-Schliep, losing by 0.02. And Lolo Jones is only a further 0.01 ahead.

For Nytra, the answer to her improvement lies in her increased training over eight hurdles, “to train in speed and cadence. Indoors I was good for five hurdles. The problem outdoors was to work on the same elements up to the eighth hurdle. The last two hurdles I left to competition to work on. The main emphasis was on not regarding the hurdles as an obstacle but as something I had to attack.”

Nytra was thrown in the deep end when she made her major international debut at the Beijing Olympics, followed by the world championships in Berlin and now the European championships. “I've done it back to front,” says Nytra. “Normally you start with the Europeans and work your way up the scale. Last year was not a good experience which is why I have done a lot of work with a psychologist. This time I hope it is third time lucky.” In both Beijing and Berlin, Nytra went out in the semis.

Nytra admits that in the past she was always afraid of having two competitions in two days. On the second day she always had the feeling that she lacked strength. In the SPAR European Team Championships, those doubts were swept away when she ran the relay as well as the hurdles: “It was important to me to feel that I should not feel afraid that I would not have the strength for the semi-final.”

Her other concern was that she should not feel the need to react to an attack in the race itself, but run her own race: “I have to think of myself, and not what the others are doing.” In Bergen that was exactly the mistake she made when Dekyareva took her by surprise and won in 12.68 to Nyra's 12.81.

But all the hard work Nytra has done this year came together in Lausanne with the perfect race. The question now is whether the woman from Bremen can put it all together in qualification and final at the Lluis Companys stadium. In the final on the 31st July the answer will be a little clearer.