China’s Liu Hong, a three-time world championships medalist, has set the world record in the women's 20-kilometer race walk at the Spanish leg of the 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge in La Coruna, Spain, on June 6, Saturday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
According to the report, Liu clocked 1 hour, 24 minutes, 38 seconds to win the race, trimming off more than a minute from her previous personal best record.
Qieyang Shijie, Liu's teammate who won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, finished second in a season best of 1:27:44, followed by Brazil's Erica De Sena in 1:29:50.
Russia's Yelena Lashmanova set the previous world record at 1:25:02, when she won the Olympic gold medal in London; but her compatriots Elmira Alembekova, Olimpiada Ivanova and Olga Kaniskina all have registered a faster time.
The report said that Alembekova set the winning mark of 1:24:47 in Sochi in February, who was the fastest among them, but the result has not been recognized due to its failure to fulfill the world record ratification requirements on the number of international judges present.
The record of 28-year-old Liu is also pending ratification by the IAAF, but reports said that the event can well meet the requirement in terms of international judges.
In the men's 20-km race, Chinese race walkers sweep the victory with Wang Zhen claiming the title in 1:18:00, considered the fourth best time for this season.
Olympic champion Chen Ding lagged 44 seconds behind to finish as the runner-up.
Cai Zelin took the third in 1:19:45.