eugene italys massimo stano won the mens 35km race walk at the world athletics championships in dramatic fashion on sunday edging japans masatora kawano by one secondstano and kawano battled shouldertoshoulder as the leading pair in the final 4km but the italian coped well with the pressure and accelerated in the final 300m to seal the gold medalgrabbing an italian flag when he was on the final stretch the 20km race walk olympic champion finished in a time of 22314 while kawano sank to his knees in despair after crossing the line a second lateri cant believe even if i won the olympic gold in theory it would be easy to understand what happened today but it is not stano saidi am happy to win gold in a different distance and show that i can compete in other distances kawano did a great race i had to change pace a few times to win today he really tired mestanos gold is italys second medal at this years championships after elena vallortigara won bronze in the womens high jump on tuesdaykawano the fastest race walker coming into sundays event had to settle for silver but the japanese said he was happy having suffered anaemia six months agoswedens perseus karlstrom took the bronze mirroring his achievement from the 20km race walk last week and he was all smiles as he crossed the line wearing a blueandyellow viking helmetearlier japans daisuke matsunaga had looked well set for a medal when he led the race following an electric start but he ran out of gas after the 20km mark eventually finishing 26th