Kirdyapkin wins gold in Olympic 50-km race

Kirdyapkin among other athletes compete in the men's 50-km race walk at the 2012 Summer Olympics on August 11, 2012.

Sergei Kirdyapkin of Russia won gold in the 50-kilometer walk at the London Games, breaking the Olympic record by more than one minute.

Kirdyhapkin finished on Saturday 54 seconds ahead of Jared Tallent of Australia, who took silver. Si Tianfeng of China was 1 minute, 17 seconds behind to win bronze in the gruelling race along the streets of central London.

Kirdyapkin took a commanding lead at the 45-kilometer mark and crossed the finish line near Buckingham Palace in 3 hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds. He broke the Olympic record of 3-37.09 by 1 minute, 10 seconds.

Kirdyapkin won the world championships in 2005 and 2009. He failed to finish the race at the 2008 Beijing Games.

PTI adds

Rana creates national record only to finish 36th

India’s Basanta Bahadur Rana on Saturday created a national record but had to settle for a 36th place finish in the men’s 50km race walk at the London Olympics.

Rana clocked 3:56:48 hrs, bettering his own national record of 4:02:13 hrs which he set in the IAAF Race Walking Cup at Saransk, Russia last May.

Saturday’s race saw 51 finishing out of the 63 starters on the penultimate day of the Games. The rest either did not finish or were disqualified.

With Rana finishing 36th, India’s athletics campaign is nearing its end without a medal. Thirteen out of 14 track & field athletes have finished their competitions. Ram Singh Yadav will run the marathon race on Sunday.