Yelena Nikolayeva became the oldest world champion ever after striding to a comfortable win in the women’s 20 km walk at the age of 37 on Sunday. The smiling Russian, competing in her seventh world championships, entered the Stade de France to a roar from the crowd and punched the air in triumph as she finished in a championship best time of one hour 26 minutes and 52 seconds. Nikolayeva entered the record books as the oldest world champion by replacing Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey, who was 35 years old when she retained her 200 metres world title in 1995. Ireland’s Gillian O’Sullivan took the silver medal, her first in a major championship, as she finished 42 seconds behind the Russian in Sunday’s race, while Valentina Tsybulskaya of Belarus won the bronze in 1:28.10. “It’s one thing to have an Olympic medal but to be world champion is something else,” Nikolayeva, the Olympic 10 km champion in 1996, told a news conference. The Russian’s previous best finish at a world championships was third in the 10 km walk in 1995. She was disqualified in Edmonton two years ago. “I’m very happy to win. Once you’ve been disqualified you always worry a little,” she said. “It’s been very difficult but today conditions were perfect and I’m in top form.” Nikolayeva, who won with the second fastest time this year behind her own world leading time, was ahead of O’Sullivan and 2001 bronze medallist Elisabetta Perrone by 20 seconds at the halfway mark on a hot, sunny day. But the Russian did not appear to be affected by the sweltering heat, as several athletes dropped out including her compatriot and Olimpiada Ivanova.
