Polish walker claims fourth gold of career

50km walk: With the possible exception of the winner there haven't been a set of Olympic medals won more exhaustively in Athens as in yesterday's 50km walk.

Poland's Robert Korzeniowski claimed the fourth gold medal of his career when he seemed to ease home in three hours 38 minutes and 46 seconds but back down the road it wasn't such a pretty sight.

Russia's world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov, who had lost over four minutes to the Pole over the closing kilometres, held on for second. By then he was delirious, barely able to put one foot in front of the other, his head dropping and his arms swingly madly to try to stay upright.

Crossing the line, he swirled about and collapsed. The few spectators present gasped. Mercifully he soon recovered and later collected his silver medal. Fellow Russian Aleksey Voyevodin took bronze by over-taking China's Yu Caohong just before the finish.

It was erringly reminiscent of the women's marathon in 1984 when Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss, an Idaho ski instructor representing Switzerland, staggered into the Los Angeles stadium with her arms hanging limply and her legs clearly stiffened. Her last lap took five minutes and 44 seconds but she finished nonetheless, in 37th place.

No such problems for 36-year-old Korzeniowski, who led from almost the gun and was left alone shortly after halfway when Australia's Nathan Deakes, already the 20km bronze medalillist, was shown the red card.

Korzeniowski, who had trained with the ill-fated Jamie Costin before the games, was racing his last competitive walk.

Similar scenes of exhaustion are expected from 6.0 tomorrow evening when the marathon runners set off from the town of Marathon towards Athens, reliving the greatest race of the 1896 Olympics. Kenya's world record holder Paul Tergat is expected to win but as the women's race proved nothing is certain. At 35 he knows this is his last chance. Never has an Olympics saved the best until last.