MOSCOW - Elena Lashmanova handed hosts Russia a second race walking gold on Tuesday, as Britain's Mo Farah advanced to the 5000m final in his bid for a middle-distance double.
After Aleksandr Ivanov's victory in the men's 20km walk on Sunday, it was Olympic champion and world record holder Lashmanova's turn in the women's 20km. The 21-year-old led a Russian 1-2, coming through the line in sapping, humid conditions just 3sec ahead of teammate Anisya Kirdyapkina.
China's Liu Hong snatched bronze after a third Russian, Vera Sokolova, was dramatically red carded by the judges as she entered the stadium. Lashmanova's victory stretched a winning Russian women's streak in the event at the worlds that dates back to Edmonton, Canada, in 2001.
"I'm happy to win a gold medal in the capital of my home country," Lashmanova said. "And I'm even more happy that we made it the Russian 1-2. "It's a pity that Vera was disqualified near the stadium at the end of the race, it could have been three of us on the podium. The victory is not of less importance than the Olympic one for me."
On the track, there were similar tales of unwelcome early morning calls in the men's 5000m, in which Farah is bidding for victory to go with his gold-medal showing in the 10,000m on Saturday.
"It was pretty hard to get up in the morning as I am not a morning person, though I had to wake up at 6:00 am," moaned the Somali-born Farah, who cruised his heat, finishing in the fifth and final automatic qualifying spot for Friday's final. "I got to the final that was my goal. Now I have to recover for the final."
Importantly for Farah, his training partner under Alberto Salazar, Galen Rupp, the American who teams up with the Briton in races often dictated by Ethiopian or Kenyan team tactics, also qualified. The double Olympic champion's main rivals all qualified: the Ethiopian trio of Mukhta Edris, Hagos Gebrehiwet and Yenem Alamirew going through alongside Kenyans Edwin Soi, Isiah Koech and Thomas Longosiwa, and Kenyan-born US 2007 world champion Bernard Lagat.
Gebrehiwet admitted that he almost missed his heat altogether. "We made a big mistake this morning and took the wrong bus from the hotel," he said. "We had to go back to the hotel and find a minibus that could bring us quickly to the stadium. We arrived so late that we went straight into the race without a proper warm-up but luckily everything went well."
There was no joy in the field, however, for defending world high jump champion Jesse Williams of the United States, who finished 23rd with a best of 2.22m. "I competed injured," the American admitted.
"I've basically been injured all season. I rolled my ankle really badly. I was trying to recover in time and get ready, and recently I've been doing better, but I guess this is just not my year. Now I have time to recover properly and get ready for the next year. I can't be too disappointed."
Thursday's final will feature an array of exciting talent nonetheless, no more so than in the shape of Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko, who might offer the best chance of a world record having cleared 2.41m this season. He has also been close at 2.46m, 1cm higher than Cuban's Javier Sotomayor's world record set back in 1993. Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim has also 2.40m, the first year since 1991 that two men have gone over 2.40m or higher.
Russian fans will look to 2012 Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov, who qualified for the final after struggling to impress this season, including a lowly fifth-placed finish at the World University Games last month.