Men's 20K RACE WALK World Record

Vladimir Kanaykin

1:17:16

Vladimir Kanaykin
September 29th 2007

IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final
Saransk, Russia

 
Russian Vladimir Kanaykin announced himself to the world by taking gold at the 2002 World Junior Championships – at the age of 17. Two years later, he returned to the WJC and took silver before graduating to the 2005 World Championships. Unfortunately he was disqualified there — an all-too-common occurrence in race-walking — but bounced back to finish a respectable ninth in the 50km at the 2006 European Championships.

But it was at the 2007 IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final that he become a world-beater. He sashayed home in 1hr 17min 16sec, shaving five seconds off three-time world champion Jefferson Perez’s four-year-old record.
 

Women's 20K RACE WALK World Record

Olimpiada Ivanova

Olimpiada Ivanova

1:25:41

Olimpiada Ivanova
August 7th 2005

IAAF World Championships
Helsinki, Finland

 

The Russian took a while to make an impact on the race-walking scene: she was 30 when she won her first gold medal, at the 2001 World Championships. She followed this up with another gold at the 2002 European Championships. But at the 2004 Olympics in Athens she finished four seconds behind surprise winner, and local heroine, Athanasia Tsoumeleka.

Ivanova’s response was immediate and emphatic: she won gold at the 2005 World Championships in a new world record time: 1:25:41.

Olga Kaniskina, another Russian, has beaten that mark this year (1:25:11) – but this is still subject to ratification, with doubts surrounding its validity because of the lack of judges.

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