China's Liu breaks race walk world record

China's Liu Hong on Saturday smashed the women's 20km race walk world record by nearly 25 seconds at an event in Spain.

The 28-year-old set a time of 1hr 24min 38sec in the Spanish leg of the 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge in La Coruna.

She beat the time of 1:25:02 set by Russia's Yelena Lashmanova when winning at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Russians Olimpiada Ivanova and Olga Kaniskina have since set faster times (1:24:50 and 1:24:54) but neither have been recognised because not enough international judges were present.

Liu's time has still has to be ratified by the IAAF.

In almost perfect conditions, Liu covered the first 10 1km laps in 42:38 before going even faster -- a straight 42 minutes -- over the second 10km.
Source: AFP