Yang smashes world 20km race walk record with 1:23:49
Report form www.worldathletics.org
Yang Jiayu chopped 49 seconds off the world record to win the 20km race walk in 1:23:49* at the Chinese Race Walking Championships in Huangshan on 20th of March.
The 2017 world champion made a break in the first kilometre and passed through 5km in 20:55. She reached half way in 41:52 with a comfortable lead over world and Olympic champion Liu Hong and then gradually increased her pace in the second half.
After going through 15km in 1:02:44, she covered the final five kilometres in 21:09 to cross the line in 1:23:49, finishing 38 seconds ahead of Liu.
Liu's 1:24:27 runner-up clocking was also inside the previous world record of 1:24:38, set by Liu in La Coruna in 2015.
“My goal for the race was to break the world record,” Yang told Xinhua. “I walked in a very fast pace at the early stages. Then my coach told me to slow down a little bit and stay in a relatively comfortable pace. The last three kilometres was the most difficult part which was a challenge for my body.”
World silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie was third in a PB of 1:24:45, securing her spot on China’s Olympic team as the race served as a trial event for the Tokyo Games.
It’s the first 20km race in which more than one woman has finished inside 1:25:00. In a race of exceptional depth, 2015 world silver medallist Lu Xiuzhi finished fourth in 1:25:51 and world bronze medallist Yang Liujing was fifth in 1:25:59. The first 10 athletes finished inside the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:31:00.
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure