20Km Race Walking World Record Progression

This page presents the historical 20Km race walking women World Record progression, including performance, athlete, date and competition details.

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20Km race walking women world record progression
Liu Hong
Сидик из ПТУ, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The women’s 20 kilometres race walk has a much shorter record history than the men’s event, reflecting the later development of women’s race walking at the international level. The progression includes the best performances achieved before the discipline received full World Athletics record recognition, followed by the officially ratified World Records under the current regulations.

The first World Record officially ratified by the IAAF was 1:25:41, set by Olimpiada Ivanova (Russia) at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Since then, the event has seen rapid progression, with the record successively improved by Yelena Lashmanova, Liu Hong and Yang Jiayu, highlighting the rise of women’s race walking during the 21st century.

20Km Race Walking, women World Record Progression – Data Table

PerformanceAthleteCountryDateLocationCompetitionNotes
1:36:19Sally PiersonAUS17/7/1984MelbourneRace Walking Meeting
1:29:40Kerry Saxby-JunnaAUS13/5/1988VårnameRace Walking Meeting
1:27:30Liu HongyuCHN1/5/1995BeijingIAAF World Race Walking Cup
1:27:30Nadezhda RyashkinaRUS7/2/1999AdlerRace Walking Meeting
1:26:22Wang YanCHN19/11/2001GuangzhouChinese National Championships
1:25:41Olimpiada IvanovaRUS7/8/2005HelsinkiIAAF World Championships
1:25:08Vera SokolovaRUS26/2/2011SochiRussian Winter Race Walking Championships
1:25:02Elena LashmanovaRUS11/8/2012LondonThe XXX Olympic Games
1:24:47Elmira AlembekovaRUS27/2/2015SochiRussian Winter Race Walking Championships
1:24:38Liu HongCHN6/6/2015La CoruñaGrand Premio Cantones
1:23:49Yang JiayuCHN20/3/2021HuangshanChinese Winter Race Walking Championships

References

See also: [Men’s 20KM Race Walking WR Progression]

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