Olympics-Athletics-China's Liu Hong wins women's 20km walk gold

(Adds comment from race winner) RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - China's Liu Hong won women's 20km walk final on Friday, fending off Mexico's Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez in a thrilling final kilometre dash to the finish line to snatch gold. World champion Liu was touted as the hot favourite heading into the Rio Games and she lived up to the billing, powering away from Gonzalez as the finish line came into sight to win in 1:28:35. Gonzalez entered the final kilometre in the lead but she was powerless to stop Liu's late onslaught on a hot and humid day, crossing the line 0.02 seconds behind the 29-year-old world record holder. "It was hard because the weather wasn't that good. The only thing I could do was keep going, do my best and try to make it perfect," Liu told reporters. "(Winning gold) means a lot to me. I have been doing this sport for more than 10 years now." Gonzalez's victory made her only the second woman ever to win a medal in athletics for Mexico and brought the Latin American nation its first medal at the Rio Games. China's Lu Xiuzhi, who won silver at last year's world championships, had to settle for bronze. Russia's London Games Olympic champion Elena Lashmanova, who was handed a two-year doping ban in 2014, did not defend her crown in Rio, where the entire Russian team athletics was prevented from competing due to doping concerns. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)