MUNICH, Aug 8: Poland’s Olympic and world champion Robert Korzeniowski produced a stunning display of race walking to win gold and set a world best time in the men’s 50 kms walk at the European Athletics Championships Thursday.

Korzeniowski, the defending European champion, clocked three hours 36 minutes 39 seconds on a hazy morning in Munich, eclipsing the previous best of 3:37:26 set by Russian Valeriy Spitsyn in May 2000.

The 34-year-old, who won both Olympic walking titles in Sydney in 2000, destroyed his rivals with his relentless pace over an undemanding course that meandered through parkland surrounding the Olympic stadium.

Korzeniowski, disqualified in second place in the stadium just before the finish of the 1992 Olympic 50 kms walk in Barcelona, began to pull away from the field at halfway.

Aleksey Voyevodin, who had been the fastest man in Europe this season, struggled to keep tabs on the leader. The Russian had to settle for silver in 3:40:16, a personal best, with Spain’s Jesus Angel Garcia taking bronze in 3:44:33.

Meanwhile, European women’s 10,000 metres gold medallist Paula Radcliffe confirmed on Thursday that she would not double in the 5,000 metres.

“I think I could have run it but things are going so well I don’t want to push it too far,” said Radcliffe, who ran the second fastest 10,000m time in history by a woman on Tuesday.

“I’ve got to think about the Chicago marathon in the autumn.”

On Wednesday night, Dwain Chambers shrugged off his reputation as an under-achiever at big events with a brilliant victory in the men’s 100 metres final.

The 24-year-old lived up to expectations at last by setting a new championship record of 9.96 seconds to secure his first major title and hand Britain their fifth straight continental crown in the blue riband event.

Chambers shaved a hundredth of a second off his personal best with the fastest time by a European this season, eclipsing his own 10.03 set in June.

Portugal’s Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu took silver in 10.06 while Briton Darren Campbell, the defending champion, grabbed bronze in 10.15.

Ekaterini Thanou, the Olympic silver and world bronze medallist, emulated Chambers by finally winning gold in the women’s 100 metres on a damp evening in the Bavarian capital.

The powerful Greek made the most of the absence of Ukraine’s world champion Zhanna Pintusevich-Block to win in 11.10 seconds, beating Belgium’s Kim Gevaert and Italian Manuela Levorato into second and third respectively.

Only Heike Drechsler could have stolen the show from Chambers on the second day of action as she sought a place in history.

The 37-year-old Olympic champion had won the last four European long jump titles and needed just one more to become the first woman athlete with five successive titles for the same event at major championships.

But she had to settle with fifth place behind Russia’s Tatyana Kotova, the 2001 world championships silver medallist and the best jumper in the world this season with an impressive 7.42 metres.

A leap of 6.85 metres was enough to secure her gold with Britain’s Jade Johnson taking a suprise silver medal while Hungary’s Tunde Vaszi won the bronze.

The men’s 10,000 metres final witnessed a tight battle between Spain’s Jose Manuel Martinez and German Dieter Baumann but could not match the women’s race won in style by Paula Radcliffe.

Martinez won in 27 minutes 47.65 seconds with former Olympic 5,000 metres champion Baumann, back in action after a two-year drugs ban, finishing second in 27:47.87 and Jose Rios underlining Spain’s strength in the distance events with the bronze in 27:48.29.

Hungary’s Adrian Annus won his first major title at 29 in the men’s hammer competition with a throw at 81.17 metres with Ukraine’s Valdislav Piskunov taking the silver medal and Greek Alexandros Papadimitriou winning bronze.

Greece, warming up for the Olympics in Athens in two years time, grabbed their second gold on Wednesday with Ekaterini Vogoli winning the women’s discus final. Russian Natalya Sadova and another Greek, Anastasia Kelesidou, completed the podium.

RESULTS OF FINALS: