20 kilometres Race Walk, Women

Olga Kaniskina (RUS) had won the 2007 World Championships and predicted she would win the gold medal in Beijing. She led the pack out of the Bird’s Nest and was a comfortable winner of this race. She was ahead at every checkpoint and was never really challenged, coasting the final circuit to win by 36 seconds. Norway’s Kjersti Plätzer took the silver medal after being well back at 10K, and still in third with two kilometers remaining. But she finished strongly as did Italy’s Elisa Rigaudo, the bronze medalist. The pace was fast as the first 12 finishers broke the previous Olympic Record.