EUGENE, Ore. (Reuters) – Massimo Stano earned Italy their first gold medal at this year’s World Athletics Championships after he won the men’s 35km race walk on Sunday.
Stano, the 20km race walk Olympic champion, crossed the line in a time of 2:23:14, finishing one second ahead of silver medallist Masatora Kawano, while Sweden’s Perseus Karlstrom completed the podium.
Stano and Kawano battled shoulder-to-shoulder as the leading pair in the final 3km, but the Italian coped well with the pressure and accelerated in the final 300m to become the world champion.
Stano’s gold is Italy’s second medal at the championships after Elena Vallortigara won bronze in the women’s high jump on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
