Yamanishi sets half-marathon race walk record

Japan’s Toshikazu Yamanishi set a men’s half-marathon race walk world record on Feb 15, clocking 1hr 20min 34sec at the Japanese Half-Marathon Race Walking Championships in Kobe.

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His time bettered the inaugural world record of 1:21:30, approved by the World Athletics Council in December, by 54sec.

Yamanishi, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, pulled away from a leading pack shortly after the 17km mark and reached the 20km mark in 1:16:26 — just 16sec shy of the 20km race walk world record he set on the same course in 2025.

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, and the mark for the men’s half-marathon race walk was set at 1:21:30.

There was another record broken in North Carolina.