Olympics: Kaniskina blazes trail to women's 20km walk gold

Friday 22 August 2008

BEIJING - World champion Olga Kaniskina of Russia led from gun to tape to win the women's 20 kilometres walk gold medal at the Olympics on Thursday.

In atrocious conditions on the course around the National Stadium, Kaniskina dominated the field and set an Olympic record of 1hr 26.31min.

There were maiden track and field medals at these Games for Norway and Italy as Kjersti Platzer finished second, 0.36sec off the pace, with Elisa Riguado a further 0.05sec adrift.

Defending champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece could only manage a ninth-placed finish in 1:27.54.

In driving rain, Kaniskina broke away from the main field early on and slowly but surely built up a steady lead on her rivals which she never looked in danger of losing.

On the track, American Bryan Clay got his bid to unseat defending world and Olympic champion Roman Sebrle off to a good start in the first event of the gruelling decathlon.

Clay, the 2005 world champion, sped to a lead 10.44sec in the 100m, giving the American 989 points.

The 33-year-old Sebrle of the Czech Republic, the reigning world record holder who also won silver in the 2000 Sydney Games, ran 11.21sec for 814pts in joint 27th position.

The decathletes will now turn their attention to the long jump and shot put in the morning session, before competing in the high jump and 400m in the evening.

Their second day of competition, comprising the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500m, comes on Friday.

Medalling events in Thursday's evening session include the men's 110m hurdles, 400m and triple jump, and the women's 200m and javelin final.

There are also semi-finals in the men's 800m and women's 1500m ahead of Saturday's finals in each event, and men's and women's 4x100m relay teams race heats for Friday's finals.

In the 400m final, reigning Olympic and two-time world champion Jeremy Wariner will face a showdown with top rival LaShawn Merritt.

Merritt, the 2007 world runner-up to Wariner, beat his arch-rival in the US Olympic trials but lost twice to him last month in Europe, setting the stage for their most meaningful meeting yet.

US men have dominated the men's 400m, winning the past six gold medals in the event and 11 of the past 13. They could even sweep the podium as the US 400m hurdles line-up did since American David Neville also reached the finals.

The 110m hurdles might have lost some of its lustre with the withdrawal through injury of defending Olympic and world champion Liu Xiang of China and American two-time Olympic silver medallist Terrence Trammell.

But world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba, American duo David Payne and David Oliver, and Frenchman Ladji Doucoure, all made it through.

The women's 200m sees a trio of Americans - two-time 200m world champion Allyson Felix, Olympics debutant Marshevet Hooker and Muna Lee - face off against Jamaica's defending champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson.

Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas and Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands make up the final line-up.