Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia after winning the 20km walk in Helsinki on Sunday. Ivanova set a new world mark with a time of 1::25:41. (Reuters)

Helsinki: Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia set the first world mark of the World Athletic Championships on Sunday, clinching $160,000 to win the 20km walk.

Ivanova dominated the walk from start to finish, and even had time to wrap herself in a Russian flag before crossing the line in 1::25:41. It beat the old mark set two years ago by 41 seconds.

“I expected it. Everything went according to plan,” said Ivanova, who will get $60,000 for gold and $100,000 for the record.

Ivanova also won the world title in 2001 and got the silver medal in Athens at last year’s Olympics.

Ryta Turava of Belarus was second and Susanna Feitor of Portugal took the bronze.

Ivanova also finished second at the 1997 worlds, but was stripped of her silver medal and banned for two years after testing positive for the illegal drug stanozolol.

The Russian set an earlier world record of 1:26:52.3 at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane. She has a faster time, but her 1:24:50 mark in march 2001 was not ratified by the IAAF.

Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin got the better of defending world champion Kim Collins to win their semi-final of the men’s 100m at the World Athletic Championships on Sunday.

Gatlin, 23, hardly broke sweat as he raced to victory in 9.99 seconds, the fastest time of the day.

Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis finished fourth to grab the last qualifying spot for the final.

Leonard Scott won the first semi-final in 10.08 but compatriot Shawn Crawford, the Olympic 200m champion, went out after finishing last.

Crawford, who has foot problems and is not running the 200m, was spoken to by the track referee after the athletes got up from their blocks twice before the race was able to start.

World heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, meanwhile, retained her title on Sunday after an epic two-day battle with France’s Eunice Barber.

The 22-year-old Swede held an 18-point advantage going into the 800m, the seventh and final event, and proved too strong over the two laps to secure a second world gold.

Olympic champion Kluft, unbeaten in the heptathlon and any multi-events competition for almost four years, finished with 6,887 points. Barber, as she did in Paris two years ago, took silver with 6,824.

Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna retained the world discus title with his last throw of the competition in a dramatic final.

Alekna trailed Estonian Gerd Kanter until the final round when he unleashed a mighty effort of 70.17m, a record for the championships.

Olympic champion Alekna was favourite for the gold after dominating the event with 11 wins this season, but Kanter proved a strong opponent and led with 68.57 until that last throw.

German great Lars Riedel, bidding to become only the second athlete after pole vaulter Sergei Bubka to win six world titles, had finished a disappointing ninth with 63.05.

His compatriot Michael Mollenbeck won bronze with 65.95.

Earlier, former world record-holder and Olympic champion Stacy Dragila was the biggest name casualty as the American failed to make the women’s pole vault final.

The 34-year-old was unconvincing in the qualifying, twice going to the last vault to clear 4.30m and 4.40m before failing to clear 4.45m, way below her personal best of 4.83m set last year.

She was almost joined by Australia’s Tatiana Grigorieva, who also only managed 4.40m but qualified for the final on count back.

The 29-year-old Russian-born naturalised Australian ? a world bronze medallist in 1999 ? entered the competition badly out of sorts having no heighted in two of the last three Grand Prix’s she has competed in.

World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva had no such problems entering the qualifying at 4.40m and successfully negotiating that and 4.45m with her first attempts.

This was hardly a surprise given the 23-year-old Russian recently raised the record mark to 5m in London.

Meanwhile, two-time world women’s triple jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva pulled out of the final on Sunday.

Russian Lebedeva, who won the Olympic long jump title in Athens last year, injured an Achilles tendon at the Bislett Games in Oslo last month.