The women's
20 kilometres walk was held on a 2 kilometre course comprising lengths of
The Mall between
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
and
Admiralty Arch
Admiralty Arch is a landmark building in London providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast. Admiralty Arch, commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his moth ...
on 13 August.
Summary
Defending champion, Olympic champion and defending champion
Liu Hong was absent. Still the race started faster than the Olympics. A pack of 20 formed on the front. That pack was whittled down to 10 by the halfway point. After
Kimberly García
Gabriela Kimberly García León (born 19 October 1993) is a female racewalker from Peru. She won gold medals in the 20 kilometres walk and 35 km walk at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first ever Peruvian world medal ...
(Peru) fell off the pace, the group was reduced to just five by the 12-kilometre mark: two Chinese,
Yang Jiayu
Yang Jiayu (; born 18 February 1996) is a female Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. She was the gold medallist over 20 km at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
Biography
In Ma ...
and
Lü Xiuzhi;
María Guadalupe González (Mexico);
Antonella Palmisano
Antonella Palmisano (born 6 August 1991) is an Italian racewalker, 3rd at 2017 World Championships, 4th at 2016 Summer Olympics and 5th at 2015 World Championships in 20 km race walk and 1st in the same event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Bi ...
(Italy); and
Erica de Sena (Brazil). de Sena fell off the pace when the other four accelerated the pace at 16K. Another lap later, Palmisano couldn't handle the pace which looked like the break for the three medalists. Yang didn't have the same awards, but she was leading the group with the Olympic silver and bronze medalists.
The three were racing to the finish. Less than 100 metres before the finish, the chief judge stepped out to show Lü the red card signifying she had accumulated three red cards from judges around the course and was disqualified. Lü didn't believe the message and tried to finish, but it was true. Yang raced González to the line, winning by barely a second. Palmisano came in 17 seconds later to get an unexpected bronze. The top five did negative splits (walking the end of the race faster than the beginning). de Sena improved her own
South American continental record. Four others set national records.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:
The following records were set at the competition:
Qualification standard
The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 1:36:00.
Results
The final took place on 13 August at 12:21. The results were as follows:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2017 World Championships in Athletics - Women's 20 kilometres walk
20 km walk
Racewalking at the World Athletics Championships