Italy's Schwazer wins 50K walk

BEIJING _ Alex Schwazer of Italy won the gold medal in the 50 kilometer walk with an Olympic record Friday, beating Australia's Jared Tallent.

Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia, the silver medalist from the Athens Games and world record holder, took bronze.

Schwazer finished in 3 hours 37.09 minutes, slicing 1.20 minutes off the 20-year-old record.

Tallent, who won bronze in the 20K walk earlier in the competition, finished 2.18 minutes behind the winner.

Schwazer was third at the last two world championships when he blamed bad tactics for missing gold.

This time, he was part of a leading group of four which broke away early in the race.

Under a punishing morning sun which pushed the temperatures close to the 30C (85F) mark, Schwazer made his move after 40K and steadily increased his lead.

Confident enough, he raised a finger for No.1 to the Italian fans lining the course with less than 3K to go.

Once he crossed the finishing line his was no longer going to keep at least one foot on the ground, as is mandatory in the walk. Instead he was jumping up and down with an Italian flag in his arms by the time Tallent joined him.

With two-thirds of the race gone, pre-race favorite Yohann Deniz stepped out with a hamstring injury and stomach pains.

"I just cracked mentally and physically," he said. "The conditions were very hard."

The result marked the coming of a new generation of walkers after Polish great Robert Korzeniowski had won the last three Olympics before retiring.