Australia sweep women's 20 km walk

MELBOURNE, Mar 20 (Reuters) Australia swept the women's 20 km walk at the Commonwealth Games today, with Jane Saville defending her title to win her third Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Saville smashed her own record set in Manchester four years ago, finishing in one hour 32 minutes 46 seconds to beat her previous mark by three minutes 48 seconds.

Saville's younger sister Natalie finished 47 seconds behind to win silver, also well inside the previous Games record. Their team mate Cheryl Webb claimed bronze with a time of 1:36:03.

Jane Saville's first Commonwealth gold came in the 10km walk in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

A bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics in 2004, she will long be remembered for being disqualified as she neared the stadium while leading at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Sri Lankan Geetha Gallage led early but Jane Saville had put her stamp on the race by the 8 km mark.

Within four kilometres the Australians had established a clear lead over a pack of walkers which included South Africa's Nicolene Cronje, India's Deepmala Devi and England's Johanna Jackson.

They were never seriously challenged after that along Melbourne's Docklands waterfront.

Cronje finished fourth, Devi fifth and Jackson seventh.

REUTERS VJ RAI0612