Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 12:50 PM

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.

Norway's Kjersti Platzer finished second, 0.36sec off the pace, with Italian Elisa Riguado a further 0.05sec adrift.

Defending champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece could only manage a 9th-placed finish in 1:27.54.

Australia's Jane Saville, competing in her fourth Olympics, finished 20th.

In driving rain, Kaniskina broke away from the main field early on and slowly but surely built up a steady lead on her rivals.

At the 8km mark she had a 41sec lead on the eight-strong chasing group, led by Platzer, Russian Tatyana Kalmykova and Belarus' Ryta Turava.

Kaniskin went through 12km at 51:19, 48sec ahead of Turava as the peloton thinned. Platzer and Spain's Maria Vasco, bronze medallist in the 2000 Games in Sydney, battled it out for third place a further 12sec adrift.

Kalmykova and China's Yang Mingxia were then red carded for breaking out of the correct walking style, which demands that one part of the foot is always on the floor.

Kaniskin raced through 16km at 1hr 08.31min, just under 1min ahead of Turava, who yielded her second place after dramatically pulling up in a bid to vomit. The Belarussian eventually finished 11th.

Platzer consolidated her second place as Vasco dropped back to fifth, overtaken by China's Liu Hong and Rigaudo, who claimed a first track and field medal at these Games for Italy.