Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece produced a personal best to claim the women's 20-kilomer walk gold medal with a time of one hour 29 minutes and 12 seconds at the current Olympic Games here Monday morning.

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 defending champion Wang, 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 away for 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 remained the margin till the end.

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