Denise Lewis put herself through the pain barrier yesterday to win the Olympic heptathlon gold medal.

Lewis, despite a debilitating foot injury, completed the 800 metres just fast enough to edge out Russian Yelena Prokhorova and win Britain's first athletics gold since Sally Gunnell and Linford Christie in 1992.

Lewis picked up the foot injury during the long jump and said it was serious enough for her to consider pulling out.

"My foot just locked, the physios were baffled and it was a bit of a scare," she said. "There was a fear in the back of my mind that I'd have to pull out, but everyone around me reassured me, and then we were prepared to do everything it takes to get me out there to throw the javelin." Lewis not only managed it but produced the second-longest throw of the competition, 50.19 metres, to gain breathing space for the decisive 800 metres, her weak event.

Needing to finish within eight seconds of Prokhorova, Lewis looked comfortable until the last 100 metres when she tied up with the Russian quickly opening a worrying gap.

Prokhorova crossed the line in 2:10.32 minutes with Lewis arriving six-and-a-half seconds later - just one-and-a-half seconds within the gold medal limit.

Japan's Naoko Takahashi took more than 90 seconds off Joan Benoit's Olympic marathon record when breaking the abrasive challenge of Romania's Lidia Simon to win in a time of 2 hours 23 minutes and 14 seconds.

In a race run in extremely humid conditions, Takahashi's measured stride was responsible for breaking up a group of some 14 athletes approaching the halfway stage.

Simon alone responded to that move and ran at the leader's shoulder for the next 20 minutes, until the pair met a steep incline at the 33-kilometre mark. There, after a searching side-ways glance at Simon, the Japanese athlete surged again, and this time there was no response from the Romanian.

Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor won silver yesterday and hit back at critics who opposed his appearance at the Games after a two-year doping ban was halved.

"I have robbed nothing. I've had to put up with a lot for a year," said the 1992 Olympic champion, who was only allowed to compete after his ban for a positive test for cocaine was cut by athletics' world governing body for humanitarian reasons.

"I do not know who should think I should not be here. I should have been competing for a year. I have been the victim of something that did not happen."

The 32-year-old Sotomayor, who tested positive at last year's Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, denied taking cocaine and was cleared by his national federation.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) decided to re-instate the finest jumper in the history of sport on humanitarian grounds.

A fluent win in the opening heat of the men's 1,500 metres championship early this morning Irish time confirmed that Hicham el Guerrouj is still the athlete to beat in the race for one of the most prized of all Olympic titles.

El Guerrouj came to the track with just a suspicion of decay but left with his reputation still intact after coasting to victory in a leisurely three minutes 38.58 seconds.

That was all of 12 seconds outside his world record but it was less the time than the authoritative manner in which the Moroccan handled the race which rang the alarm bells for his rivals.

But even as the world champion prospered, James Nolan's challenge perished in a wholly unconvincing run which put him back in ninth place in a time of 3.40.50.

With the first six in each of the three heats plus the six fastest losers going through to the semi-finals, it looked as if Nolan was poised to deliver on his expectations when he picked his way from the back of the field to move into seventh place between the two top bends.

At that point, he was perfectly positioned to attack from lane three but almost as quickly as he arrived in the firing line, he began to fade. That was disturbing and even as the battle for the critical fourth, fifth and sixth places was evolving in front of him, he was on his way out the back door.

Some eight minutes after El Guerrouj had disappeared down the tunnel to the mixed zone area, his predecessor as the emperor of middle distance running, Noureddine Morceli took his place on the start line for the third heat.

Morceli duly qualified when finishing second to the Kenyan, Noah Ngeny but the quality of his performance did little to disprove the theory that all his best days are now behind him.