Olympic champion Elena Lashmanova overcame confusion over where the finish line was to lead home a Russian one-two in the women's 20km race walk at the world championships this morning.

Ireland's Laura Reynolds, who finished 20th at the London Olympics, could only finish 31st and was left bitterly disappointed with her performance and time of 1:33:39.

“I’m very disappointed with that, 31st place explains it all,” she said afterwards. “It wasn’t a good place wasn’t a good time, I don’t have an explanation for it. My last race in Kazan at World students I finished sixth, I was happy with finishing sixth.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t recover, I just can’t explain why it went wrong. I’ll have to review this with my coach and see where to go.”

World record holder Lashmanova, 21, secured a first world title but had only three seconds to spare at the line over team mate Anisya Kirdyapkina after twice almost breaking stride on her final lap because she did not know where the race ended.

“The judges didn’t really explain to us that we should do one lap before the home straight and finish,” she said. “That’s why I stopped for a second in the stadium, but I quickly understood I should keep going.”

Lashmanova clocked 1:27:08 on a hot morning, getting a rousing reception as she entered the Luzhniki stadium. A fast-closing Kirdyapkina could not quite close the gap despite her younger rival’s slip-up, while China’s Liu Hong took bronze in 1:28:10.

Race walking superpower Russia were denied a podium sweep after Vera Sokolova, who was in third place, was shown a third yellow card and disqualified soon after entering the arena with just over one lap of the track to complete.