Slovakian Matej Toth added a 20km victory in Podebrady to his previous victory in Dudince last month.

Not even an overnight downpour could deter Slovakian Matej Toth and Poland's Sylvia Korzeniowska from outstanding victories and Olympic qualifying standards at the European Athletics Race Walking Permit Meeting in Podebrady (CZE) on Saturday.

Toth, the winner at this event in 2003, continued his rich vein of recent form with another Olympic qualifying standard of 1:22:35, to add to his earlier victory at Dudince last month, while Korzeniowska was utterly dominant in the womens equivalent eventually breaking the tape in a speedy 1:31.16.

The organisers of the meeting in the Czech Spa town awoke up in the morning to discover the course totally destroyed after the previous nights storm and rain.

Fortunately they were able to make all the necessary arrangements for the 1km course to be ready but the weather also played its part as it was sunny and 10-12 degrees by the time the competitions finally begun.

Behind Toth in the men's 20km, Spain's Francisco Arcilla clocked new personal best 1:23:06 but missed the Olympic A qualifier by a mere six seconds beating Italian 50 km specialist Marco de Luca into third place in a new best of1:23:16.

Belarusian Aleksandr Kuzmin took fourth in 1:24:22 ahead of Spain's Jose David Dominguez in fifth with 1:24:25 and German Maik Berger in sixth with 1:24:29.

There was disappointment for last year's winner Luis Manuel Corchette of Spain, who could only manage seventh this time round in a disappointing 1:24:44 but he did have the satisfaction of helping Spain to the team title with 6 points ahead of Belarus (11) and Sweden (13), Slovakia (14), Hungary (21) and Czech Republic (23).

Further down the field, Milos Holusa in 16th place overall was crowned Czech Champion in 1:29:47 while there were three top quality personal best times achieved by Ireland's David Kidd, John Egan and Michael Doyle, who all knocked minutes from their previous best performances.   

In women's 20km, Korzeniowska was a class apart and had the added advantage of being watched by her better known sibling and coach, four time Olympic Champion Robert, who was not only coaching her on the course but also helped to present the awards at the end of the competition.

"We're happy with her form but we had hoped she would break 1:30 but I'm sure it will happen soon enough," he was quoted as saying afterwards.

Second place went to Czech champion Zuzana Schindlerova with 1:33:58 ahead of another Pole Agnieszak Dygacz in third with a new best of 1:34:17. Lithuania won the team competition with 5 points ahead of Czech (10), Hungary (13) and Spain (21).

In the junior races, young Spanish walker Lluis Torla took top honours in the junior 10 km in an excellent 40:45 beating Italian Federico Tontodonati (42:14). Lorena Castrillo scored for Spain to win the junior girls 10 km with 48:32.

Altogether, nearly 200 walkers from 16 countries competed in a full days competition organised by former Czech great and member of the European Athletics Race Walking Committee Miloslav Lapka in front of some 3,000 spectators.

Results