ATHENS, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece produced a big surprising victory over many world strong rivals toclaim the women's 20-kilometer walk gold medal here this morning at the Olympics.

    After clocking the winning time of one hour, 29 minutes and 12 seconds, the Greek girl said at the press conference: "The race was difficult from the very start to the very last step. But I was absolutely calm. After the 17th kilometer I cut away from the rest of the group. Winning just any medal was no longer good enough for me, I wanted the gold medal."

    The winner added: "throughout the race, I could see people gathering along the side of the road, and that gave me strength."

    In today's final, Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia, former world record holder, took the silver in 1:29:16 and Jane Saville of Australia won the bronze in 1:29:25.

    World record holder Yelena Nikolayeva of Russia was out of the top ten, and China's Olympic defending champion Wang Liping finished eighth.

    Ivanova, 33, set the pace from the start and hit the 10km mark first in 45:16, followed closely by China's Wang Liping, defending champion, Nikolayeva, 1996 Olympic champion, China's Song Hongjuan,the year's best holder, Saville and several other walkers.

    At the 16th kilometer mark, the 38-year-old Nikolayeva and Song couldn't keep the pace with the first leading group and faded awayfor good.

    Tsoumeleka, 22, little-known before the race with a personal best of 1:29:34, suddenly emerged at the 18th kilometer mark, rolling over Ivanova and Saville to take the lead.

    The Greek girl, who had been warned twice at that time, quickly opened a five-second gap and maintained the margin till the end.

    Ivanova tried her best to catch up with Tsoumeleka, but couldn't find enough strength in the final lap. Enditem