Aug 21, 2009, 13:34 GMT
Berlin - Sergey Kirdyapkin of Russia came from behind in strong fashion on Friday to claim a second world championship title in the men's 50-kilometres walk.
Kirdyapkin, 29, trailed the then leading Australian duo of Jared Tallent and Luke Adams by more than half a minute at the 35km mark, but the 2005 winner then stepped up the pace to win at the iconic Brandenburg Gate in 3 hours 38 minutes 35 seconds.
Trond Nymark claimed second place for Norway, almost three minutes behind in 3:41:16. Spanish veteran Jesus Angel Garcia of Spain was third in 3:41:37.
A morning thunderstorm and rain had cooled down the temperatures nicely after a sweltering Thursday and Japan's Yuki Yamazaki made a first move on the 2km-lap course on the Unter den Linden boulevard in front of thousands of fans.
But he was later disqualified as a five-man group formed after 25km, featuring Adams, Tallent, Kirdyapkin, Russian world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov and France's Yohan Diniz.
The two Australians and Nizhegorodov were on their own a little later but the Russian's hopes of a first big title ended when he had to make a toilet break.
By that time Kirdypin had already started closing in on the top again and he passed Tallent just after the 40km mark en route to a big victory.
The Australian eventually faded to seventh while Nymark and Garcia surged ahead as well. Garcia, 39, thus completed his set of medals 17 years after getting gold in Stuttgart, and silvers coming in 1997 and 2001.
Defending champion Nathan Deakes of Austria was not competing due to injury while Olympic champion Alex Schwazer retired early in the race.
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