Korzeniowski collects third gold for historic farewell

Robert Korzeniowski's long road came to an end yesterday when the Pole won an unprecedented third Olympic 50 kilometre race walk title in a row.

There was barely anyone to watch his feat at a near-deserted Olympic stadium.

The greatest walker in history, Korzeniowski covered the last third of the race in hot and humid conditions on his own to cross the line in three hours 38 minutes 46 seconds. He then immediately announced his retirement.

Silver went to exhausted world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia, who collapsed as he finished just over four minutes back, and bronze to another Russian, Aleksey Voyevodin.

"That's it. That was my last step today as a top-class walker," Korzeniowski said.

"It was the title I wanted the most, the one I dreamt about the most.

"I'm the happiest man alive. But it was disappointing that the stadium was empty. All my other medals were won in front of big crowds. I'm sorry about it but it's not my fault."

The 36-year-old Pole, who is also a triple world champion, had already carved his name in walking history four years ago by winning the 20-50km double. No other man, indeed, has ever won the Olympic 50km race twice.

He grabbed a Polish flag as he entered the stadium and crossed the line holding it in his teeth.

No-one has trained harder or expended more sweat for gold. Justin Gatlin's 100 metres gold, including the heats, took 400 metres and around 40 seconds to secure. The Pole went 125 times further and competed for around 330 times as long.

The race had begun at 7 a.m., Greek time in an almost empty Olympic stadium - the venue had been packed with 75,000 spectators only hours before for the men's 200 metres final. There were just a handful of cleaners, officials and journalists looking on as the sun broke clear of the horizon.

The few onlookers witnessed an electric start, however, when the Chinese trio hurtled away and exploded the 54-man field within minutes.

Yucheng disqualified

It proved a suicidal tactic for Han Yucheng, second fastest man in the world this year. He received his first of three warnings for lifting after five minutes, dropped away and was later disqualified.

That left a six-man pack, including Korzeniowski, Nizhegorodov and Australia's Nathan Deakes, who won bronze in the 20km walk in Athens, 100 metres ahead inside the first 10 minutes.

The 24-year-old Nizhegorodov, who broke the Pole's world record in June, led from 10 to 30km as the leading group was whittled down to four.

Korzeniowski, however, added: "He was taking a big risk going so fast so early. I checked my heart monitor and I was okay so I followed, but I let him do all the work."

With just over an hour to go, the Pole and Australian attacked but Deakes's elation was shortlived.

Red-carded after his third warning, he looked close to tears, holding his capped head in his hands.

Perhaps the Deakes family had already had its quota of luck this year - a few months ago his mother won a one-million-dollar jackpot while playing a slot machine at a Melbourne casino.

Korzeniowski, on his own with a third of the race left, was 51 seconds ahead at 40km and forged further clear. "At 40km I knew I had won," he said.

The Pole speaks five languages and used them all in interviews after his success. In France, where he has a training base, he is known as Le Roi de Macadam (The King of the Tarmac).

Asked where he had found the strength to win again, he added: "My daughter is two months old today - she's given me new energy."