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	*NEWS*

Russian eclipses Ullrich and Armstrong

By Mike Price SYDNEY (Reuters) - Vyatcheslav Ekimov eclipsed the two biggest names in cycling, Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong, to win the men's Olympic individual time trial final on Saturday. It gave Russia their first Olympic cycling title since he was part of a Soviet foursome who raced to gold in Seoul 12 years ago. It was the cycling upset of the Sydney Games as world time trial champion Ullrich of Germany was eight seconds slower than the 34-year-old from Vyborg who also made life hard for his professional team captain Armstrong over the 46.8 km course in Centennial Park. The double Tour de France winner from Texas was 34 seconds off Ekimov's pace and had to settle for bronze. He said: ``If I said that I was not surprised I would be lying. ``Slava is a time triallist, and he put it all on the line for me in the Tour so as upset as I am in not winning gold I am delighted he won. ``He is a true champion. He has done more on the road and track than a lot of us combined. ``I came to win the gold medal. I wish I could tell you that I had a problem, a flat tyre, cramp, or that I felt bad, but I just did not go so well as the others.'' Ekimov has been world standard for 16 years. His first gold medals came as a junior in 1984 when he won the junior world points race and was in the winning team pursuit quartet in the same competition. Between 1985 and 1989 he won the amateur world pursuit title three times, and in 1990 took the professional crown followed a year later by the world points gold. ``I never expected such a performance. I was totally nervous watching the last riders. To have been in the top five would have been great, but this is just outstanding.'' Ullrich, who won the road race title three days ago, said: ``It was a pity there were only eight seconds in it, but I have already won gold in the king's discipline (road race) and to have gold and silver in Sydney was more than I expected.''