|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Korzeniowski takes the long walk into Olympic history books
= = ATTENTION - CORRECTS to drop last para which is inaccurate /// SYDNEY, Sept 29 (AFP) - Poland's Robert Korzeniowski walked his way into the history books in Sydney on Friday morning, when he became the first man in Olympic history to win the 20km and 50km race walk double, retaining his title in the longest event on the athletics programme - another historic first. Latvia's Agars Fadejevs took silver while Mexican Joel Sanchez finished with the bronze but it was Korzeniowski who took the event to a new level. The 32-year-old Krakow sports teacher won the 20km walk here last week in controversial style - when Mexico's Bernardo Segura was disqualified 11 minutes after he had crossed the line in the belief he had won the gold. But Friday's triumph was much more clear-cut. Korzeniowski finished in 3hr 42min 22sec, removing his sun glasses to reveal the sweat on his face in the baking Sydney sun. Fadejevs took silver as he moved through in the last 10km to finish with 3:43:40, nearly a minute clear of Sanchez (3:44:36). "It was just great to have won without any controversy this time," Korzeniowski said. "After what happened last week, I needed to get away. I stayed with some Polish friends outside Sydney. But when I came back to the Athletes' Village yesterday, I was ready to race again." Korzeniowski, who is based in France, paid tribute to his walking hero, Ronald Weigel, the former East German, now coaching in Australia, who at the 1988 Games won Olympic silvers at both 20km and 50km. "To have beaten Weigel's achievement is a very proud moment for me," he said. "Weigel set the benchmark for all walkers." The Pole broke away from Sanchez shortly after the three-hour mark as they duelled in the midday heat with the race entering its final 10km on the flat road loop circuit in Olympic Park, just outside Stadium Australia. With Sydney temperatures touching 30 degrees Celsius, Sanchez, the Pan American champion, wilted under the unrelenting pressure of the Pole's pace, and once the Mexican was shown a warning card by one of the judges, he quickly lost contact with Korzeniowski. Wearing a heart-rate monitor under his vest to better judge his efforts, Korzeniowski hit a metronomic rhythm that his rivals could not match, and the walk judges - for once in these Games - could not fault. The gap quickly opened to one minute, and Sanchez soon found himself being caught by Fadejevs, a European silver medallist at the shorter walk distance, but with little previous form over the long haul of 50km. The leading group was down to eight by halfway, including Korzeniowski, Joel Sanchez and his Mexican team mate German Sanchez, Fadejevs, Spain's Valenti Massana, the bronze medallist four years ago, Nathan Deakes, from Australia, and 1995 world champion Valentin Kononen, of Finland. Deakes, urged by the crowd into medal contention until 35km, illustrated how tough the conditions were for the walkers in the heat, when he was forced to halt outside the stadium with leg cramps. Recovered, he entered the packed stadium to tumultuous roars. The 20km and 50km walks have been on the Olympic programme - with the exception of 1976, when only the 20km was staged - since the 1956 Melbourne Games, the 50km walk having been in the Games since 1932.
|
