24 August 2004	Tuesday	07 Rajab 1425

ATHENS, Aug 23: Athanasia Tsoumeleka made up for some of Greece's doping shame by walking to gold - but the doping shadow was cast over Russia Monday as Irina Korzhanenko was stripped of her shot put gold medal and kicked out of the Athens Olympics.

Tsoumeleka said she was on a make-good mission for disgraced sprinters Ekaterini Thanou and Kostadinos Kederis when she won the hosts' first athletics gold in the 20 kilometres walk.

Tsoumeleka, a two-time European junior champion, pushed hard on the final kilometre to get the gold in 1 hour 29 minutes 12 seconds in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

The 2001 world champion Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia won silver in 1:29:16, and Australia's Jane Saville got the bronze in 1:29:25, four years after being disqualified in leading position heading into the stadium at the Sydney Games.

In other early athletics action, former world record holder and three-time world champion Tomas Dvorak of the Czech Republic pulled out of the decathlon after the opening 100m race with an Achilles tendon injury.

Brayan Clay led the decathlon field after the first three events, the 100m, long jump and shot put on 2,843 points, with fellow- American world champion Tom Pappas lying sixth on 2,673 points.

Meanwhile Korzhanenko was kicked out of the Games after the IOC said she tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba will now get the gold, Nadine Kleinert of Germany silver and Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia the bronze.

Korzhanenko faces a life-time ban from the ruling body IAAF because she is a second-time offender. In 1999, she was stripped of her world indoor championship silver for drug abuse and banned until 2001.

The Russian tested positive for the same substance which cost Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson the 100m gold in 1988 in what was the biggest Olympic doping scandal.

Korzhanenko's case is considered especially grave because the shot put competition took place in the ancient Olympia site - dear to the hosts and, ironically, where women were not allowed to attend or compete in the ancient Games.

Before the IOC ruling German athletics federation chief Clemens Prokop said it would be "an absolute disgrace if she competed with banned substances at the sacred Olympia site."

Ryu Seung Min of South Korea won the gold medal in the men's singles table tennis competition, beating tournament number 4 Wang Hao of China, 11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-13, 11-9. It was South Korea's first men's singles gold since table tennis made its Olympic debut 1988 in Seoul.

Wang got silver and the bronze medal went to top seed Wang Ligin of China, who defeated the 1992 and 2000 champion Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden, 10-12, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9. -dpa