BIRMINGHAM, England – Spain’s Maria Perez and Italy’s Sofia Fiorini set world records in the women’s half-marathon and marathon race walks respectively at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Perez won the half-marathon race walk in 1 hour, 30 minutes and 6 seconds, beating the inaugural world record standard of 1:30:30 set by World Athletics. Okay News reports that the event replaced the women’s 20km race walk as an official distance from January 1.
The victory marked Perez’s first European title since she won the 20km event in 2018. The Spaniard, a four-time world champion and world record holder over 35km, finished ahead of Italy’s Alexandrina Mihai, while Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Olyanovska took bronze.
Fiorini then set the inaugural world record in the women’s marathon race walk, winning gold in 3:15:11 and finishing more than 10 minutes faster than her previous best.
The Italian pulled away from her rivals with less than 10km remaining and eventually lapped most of the field. Her time was comfortably inside the 3:17:00 standard set by World Athletics for the inaugural marathon race walk record.
Poland’s Katarzyna Zdzieblo won silver, finishing more than four-and-a-half minutes behind Fiorini, while Spain’s Raquel Gonzalez took bronze.
Fiorini had finished second at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Brazil in April in 3:25:42, but improved substantially in Birmingham to claim the European title and establish the new world mark.
