Russian Valeriy Borchin clocked 1:19:01 to win the men's 20km walk gold medal at the Olympic Games today.-Xinhua

Russian Valeriy Borchin got the men's 20km race walk gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in Beijing today.

His archrival in most of the race, Jefferson Perez won the first medal for Ecuador with only a slight disadvantage against Borchin.

Borchin clocked in 1 hour 19 minutes 1 second. World champion Perez finished in 1:19.15, followed by Jared Tallent of Australia, with a result of 1:19.42.

Chinese walker Wang Hao won his 19th birthday in the national stadium by finishing the fourth in the Olympic Games.

Athens Olympic silver medalist Francisco Fernandez of Spain finished the seventh and another Russian favorite Ilya Markov only 17th.