HELSINKI, Aug 7: Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia set a world record of one hour 25 minutes 41 seconds in the women’s 20 km walk final on the second day of the 10th world championships on Sunday. The previous mark of 1:26:22 had been held jointly by Wang Yan of China and Yelena Nikolayeva of Russia.

Ivanova, second at last year’s Athens Olympics and the European Cup champion, clocked 1:24:50 four years ago which has been included in some athletics reference books. However, the International Association of Athletics Federations confirmed that the mark was unofficial.

Ryta Turova of Belarus took the silver and Susana Feitor of Portugal the bronze. Greece’s Olympic champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka was disqualified in the final few kilometres when in third place.

After being shown her third and final warning, the 23-year-old promptly stopped and burst into tears. Chinese teenager Jiang Jing, the second fastest woman this year coming into the championship, suffered the same fate earlier in the race.

Ivanova led from the start and by the halfway stage had more than a minute over Turova and China’s Song Hongjuan.

The 34-year-old, who was stripped of the world silver medal in 1997 after a positive test for the steroid stanozolol, continued to increase her lead.

The victory and world record earned Ivanova a bonus of $160,000. She won the 20 km walk in 2001 but was forced to pull out of the event two years ago with a hamstring injury just six minutes into her title defence.

The silver was 24-year-old Turova’s first medal in a major championship after finishing fourth in the Olympics last year.

Feitor worked her way slowly through the field, moving up from sixth in the final five km to win her first medal in eight world championship appearances.

Russian Yelena Nikolayeva, who won the title in 2003, did not finish the race.

World heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft overcame injury and a dogged opponent to retain her title after an epic two-day battle with France’s Eunice Barber.

The 22-year-old Swede held an 18-point advantage going into the 800 metres, the seventh and final event, and proved too strong over the two laps to secure a second world gold.

Olympic champion Kluft, unbeaten in the heptathlon and any multi-events competition for almost four years, finished with 6,887 points. Barber, as she did in Paris two years ago, took silver with 6,824.

It was the closest finish to a world heptathlon since 1993 when Jackie Joyner-Kersee overhauled German Sabine Braun in the 800 metres to take gold by 40 points.

Kluft had nursed an ankle injury throughout the competition and trailed Barber, eight years her senior, overnight by two points.

The charismatic Swede quickly turned the contest in her favour on Sunday, edging ahead after a controversial long jump and maintaining a slim advantage from the javelin.

Kluft kept her composure in the 800 to overhaul a determined Barber in the final 100 metres.

Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna retained the world discus title with his last throw of the competition in a dramatic final.

Alekna trailed Estonian Gerd Kanter until the final round when he unleashed a mighty effort of 70.17 metres, a record for the championships.

Olympic champion Alekna was favourite for the gold after dominating the event with 11 wins this season but Kanter proved a strong opponent and led with 68.57 until that last throw.

Kanter, the only other man to go over 70 metres this year, had previously only beaten Alekna once in 27 meetings.

German great Lars Riedel, bidding to become only the second athlete after pole vaulter Sergei Bubka to win six world titles, had a disappointing night and finished ninth with 63.05.

His compatriot Michael Mollenbeck won bronze with 65.95.

Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin got the better of defending world champion Kim Collins to win their semifinal of the men’s 100 metres.

Gatlin, 23, hardly broke sweat as he raced to victory in 9.99 seconds, the fastest time of the day.

Earlier on Saturday, Tirunesh Dibaba unleashed a startling final lap to lead an Ethiopian clean sweep of the women’s 10,000 metres.

Dibaba clocked an unofficial 58 seconds on the final lap to win in 30 minutes 24.02 seconds.

Defending champion Berhane Adere finished second with Dibaba’s older sister Ejegayehu taking the bronze.

The honour of winning the first gold medal of the championships went to Ecuador’s Jefferson Perez, who became a national hero of unprecedented dimensions when he won his country’s first medal of any type at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Results on Sunday:

Women’s 20km walk: 1. Olimpiada Ivanova (Russia) 1:25:41 (world record): 2. Margarita Turova (Belarus) 1:27:05; 3. Susana Feitor (Portugal) 1:28:44; 4. Maria Vasco (Spain) 1:28:51; 5. Barbora Dibelkova (Czech Republic) 1:29:05; 6. Athina Papayianni (Greece) 1:29:21; 7. Elisa Rigaudo (Italy) 1:29:52; 8. Claudia Stef (Romania) 1:30:07; 9. Hongjuan Song (China) 1:30:32; 10. Yuliya Voyevodina (Russia) 1:30:34.

Men’s discus throw final: 1. Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuania) 70.17 metres (championships record); 2. Gerd Kanter (Estonia) 68.57; 3. Michael Moellenbeck (Germany) 65.95; 4. Aleksander Tammert (Estonia) 64.84; 5. Ian Waltz (United States) 64.27; 6. Frantz Kruger (South Africa) 64.23; 7. Jarred Rome (United States) 64.22; 8. Jason Tunks (Canada) 63.77; 9. Lars Riedel (Germany) 63.05; 10. Zoltan Koevago (Hungary) 62.94; 11. Mario Pestano (Spain) 62.75; 12. Andrzej Krawczyk (Poland) 62.71.

Women’s heptathlon final standings (after all seven events): 1. Carolina Kluft (Sweden) 6887 points; 2. Eunice Barber (France) 6824; 3. Margaret Simpson (Ghana) 6375; 4. Austra Skujyte (Lithuania) 6360; 5. Kelly Sotherton (Britain) 6325; 6. Marie Collonville (France) 6248; 7. Naide Gomes (Portugal) 6189; 8. Karin Ruckstuhl (Netherlands) 6174; 9. Nataliya Dobrynska (Ukraine) 6144; 10. Sonja Kesselschldger (Germany) 6113.

On Saturday:

Men’s 20km walk: 1. Jefferson Perez (Ecuador) 1:18:35; 2. Francisco Fernandez (Spain) 1:19:36; 3. Juan Molina (Spain) 1:19:44; 4. Andre Hoehne (Germany) 1:20:00; 5. Hatem Ghoula (Tunisia) 1:20:19; 6. Vladimir Stankin (Russia) 1:20:25; 7. Benjamin Kucinski (Poland) 1:20:34; 8. Eder Sanchez (Mexico) 1:20:45; 9. Hongjun Zhu (China) 1:21:01; 10. Luke Adams (Australia) 1:21:43.

Women’s 10,000 metres: 1. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) 30:24.02; 2. Berhane Adere (Ethiopia) 30:25.41; 3. Ejagayehu Dibaba (Ethiopia) 30:26.00; 4. Huina Xing (China) 30:27.18; 5. Edith Masai (Kenya) 30:30.26; 6. Worknesh Kidane (Ethiopia) 30:32.47; 7. Yingjie Sun (China) 30:33.53; 8. Galina Bogomolova (Russia) 30:33.75; 9. Paula Radcliffe (Britain) 30:42.75; 10. Irene Kwambai (Kenya) 30:55.80.

Men’s shot put final: 1. Adam Nelson (United States) 21.73 metres; 2. Rutger Smith (Netherlands) 21.29; 3. Ralf Bartels (Germany) 20.99; 4. Yuriy Belonog (Ukraine) 20.89; 5. Christian Cantwell (United States) 20.87; 6. Andrey Mikhnevich (Belarus) 20.74; 7. Joachim Olsen (Denmark) 20.73; 8. Ville Tiisanoja (Finland) 20.57; 9. Tomasz Majewski (Poland) 20.23; 10. Tepa Reinikainen (Finland) 20.09; 11. Mikulas Konopka (Slovakia) 19.72; 12. Carl Myerscough (Britain) 19.67.—Reuters