Japan’s Toshikazu Yamanishi set a men’s half marathon race walk world record on Sunday, clocking 1:20:34 at the Japanese Half Marathon Race Walking Championships in Kobe.
His time bettered the inaugural world record of 1:21:30, approved by the World Athletics Council in December last year, by 54 seconds.
Yamanishi, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, pulled away from a leading pack shortly after the 17km mark and reached 20km mark in 1:16:26 – just 16 seconds shy of the 20km race walk world record he set on the same course last year.
With an additional lap now included in the half marathon race walk distance, the two‑time world champion accelerated again over the closing stretch to win comfortably in record time.
World Athletics approved inaugural world record standards for the half marathon and marathon race walking events. The approved inaugural world record standard for the men's half marathon race walk was set at 1:21:30.