Rebecca Henderson breaks world record in race walk marathon at Takahata meeting

Rebecca Henderson, 25, set a new world record for the race walk marathon with a time of 3:14:52 at the All Japan Race Walking meeting in Takahata, northern Japan on Sunday, becoming the first Australian track and field athlete in a generation to register a senior world record in a championship event. The Dandenong native achieved the mark in wet, sodden conditions and finished 14 minutes clear of her nearest rival in the mixed field.

The race walk marathon is the sport’s newest championship distance and, along with the half‑marathon, was adopted as a World Athletics official race walk distance in January, replacing the 20km and 35km formats. Henderson was making her debut over the official marathon distance and had previously finished ninth in the 35km at last year’s world athletics championships in Tokyo. She is a double Olympian who recently won Commonwealth Games bronze at 10,000m on the track in Glasgow and was part of the World University Games team that took silver in Bochum last year.

Henderson’s 3:14:52 shaved 19 seconds off the previous world record set by Italy’s Sofia Fiorini when she won the European Championships in Birmingham in August. Henderson raced alone for much of the course and overtook several men in the mixed field as she extended her lead to 14 minutes by the finish.

The Australian’s achievement came despite heavy rain on the day in Takahata, conditions described in reports as sodden. The performance was recorded at the All Japan Race Walking meeting, which staged the new championship distance alongside the half‑marathon.

There was further Australian success at Takahata in the half‑marathon, where Elizabeth McMillen, who beat Henderson for silver at the Commonwealth Games, won in 1:31:31. That time was reported as the fifth‑fastest in the new women’s event and was recorded as an Australian record, improving her personal best by almost seven minutes.

The result also marked a rare senior world record by a non‑disabled Australian athlete in a championship event; the last such occasion cited was Nathan Deakes’s 50km world record set on the roads of Geelong in December 2006. Australian para athletes have set global records in recent times, and Olympic silver medallist Jess Hull previously set a world 2000m record in Monaco in a non‑championship discipline.

The Takahata meeting produced a landmark double when Japan’s Masatora Kawano, two days after his 28th birthday, set the inaugural men’s world race walk marathon record with a time of 2:55:14. The same venue was noted for Kawano having set a world record of 2:21:47 over 35km two years earlier.