Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin regained the men's 50 kilometres walk world title here on Friday to give Russia a unique clean sweep of the three walking titles at the championships. The 29-year-old, the world champion in 2005, timed 3hrs 38mins 35secs beating home Trond Nymark of Norway - fourth in 2005 - while Spain's 39-year-old 1993 world champion Jesus Angel Garcia took the bronze.
Kirdyapkin revealed that his wife, who had finished fourth in the women's 20km race had spurred him on. "I received a text from her this morning and it was very short, simply saying 'I'm asking for revenge'..and I delivered for her!" Kirdyapkin said he had not been aware that he was creating a bit of athletics history for his country.
"Wow! That is amazing and I am delighted to have been part of this unique achievement, it is a wonderful moment for Russia," he said. The first significant move came after 50 minutes as a group of five broke away. Among them were two Australians, Luke Adams and Jared Tallent, who took silver and bronze respectively in the 50km and 20km at the Olympics.
The Russians also had two in the lead group, Denis Nizhegorodov - the world record holder at the distance but only bronze in the Olympics - and Kirdyapkin, as well as Japan's Yuki Yamazaki. Frenchman Yohann Diniz, the 31-year-old European champion, also succeeded in rejoining the lead quintet.
Italy's Olympic champion Alex Schwazer was unable to make any impact at this stage and was, with five other athletes, 21 seconds behind at the 15km mark as he sought to break his run of two successive bronzes at the world championships. Adams led the six frontrunners at the 15km mark, but ominously Schwazer broke away from his group and was not far off joining the leaders. Indeed, Schwazer's sudden burst of acceleration saw him reel in the leaders.
However, it was a false dawn for the Italian as he weakened and dropped back as fast as he had appeared being distanced by the leaders. Disaster struck Yamazaki just before the halfway mark as he received his third warning and was disqualified. Unaware, he carried on for another two kilometres before being called to the side. Within minutes a tiring Schwazer decided to call it a day, the 24-year-old retiring from the race after 26km.
The battle for the medals soon became an Australo-Russian contest as Diniz was dropped, leaving Kirdyapkin leading the quartet with 20km to go. Nizhegorodov was then forced to answer a call of nature at the 35km mark, leaving the two Australians alone up front - Kirdypakin having been temporaily dropped - and the 29-year-old Russian returned some 20 seconds in arrears. Nizhegorodov never rediscovered his rhythm and was to drop out at the 40km mark.
Kirdyapkin had meanwhile reeled in Adam and, after catching Tallent, dropped the Australian with ease. The increasingly strong Nymark, 32, looked to be the biggest danger to Kirdyapkin as he caught the weakening Adams and then passed Tallent as the two Australians began to pay for their earlier efforts - Tallent was to lose out on a medal when Garcia passed him. Nymark, though, was unable to make any impression leaving Kirdyapkin to stroll to victory.