By Tom Fordyce BBC Sport Online in Munich

New European 800m champion Jolanda Ceplak has defended her reputation in the face of comments from Kelly Holmes after Thursday night's race.

The Slovenian took gold with a dominant display of front-running for her first major outdoor title.

But after the race, British bronze medallist Holmes questioned the manner of Ceplak's runaway victory.

"There was no way of catching her," said Holmes.

"Without saying too much, take your own guesses [how she did it]. I know I do it fairly and with progression."

Holmes did not attend the post-race media conference and did not applaud Ceplak when she received her gold medal.

But Ceplak was quick to defend her achievement.

"I am very surprised she said this. We are in the same team and we have the same agent," she said.

"After the semi-final I decided I was going to run in front because I train alone and I can run alone fast.

"If the race is slow, everyone can win in the last 200m. It was not easy.

'My hard work'

"I can go to doping control every day and every hour, and I'm not taking anything," she added.

"Everything that I have run this year has been down to my hard work. I cry every time when it is so hard in training.

"But this is my work. I have trained for 15 years. When I was 14 years old I was top three, and when I changed my coach two or three years ago, I decided that I was going to be top three again.

"And now I am here again in the top three. I'm just happy that I won the race."