Heroic effort as O’Sullivan walks tall
Yelena Nikolayeva arguably the most successful woman walker in history had to produce a championship best performance to beat Ireland's Gillian O'Sullivan, to add the elusive world title to the Olympic title which she won in Atlanta.
The 37-year-old Russian won in 1:26:52 in blistering heat as the Irishwoman who celebrated her 27th birthday here on Thursday coasted home in 1:27:34, ahead of the Belarussian Valentina Tsybulskaya, who set a new national record at 1:28:10.