Lu Xiuzhi breaks women's 20km race walk Asian record

Beijing, March 20: Chi’s Lu Xiuzhi set a new Asian record to win the women’s 20 kilometre title at the Chinese tiol Race Walk Grand Prix meet here on Friday.

The 21-year-old Lu, reigning Asian Games and Chinese tiol Games champion, led from the start and clocked one hour 25 minutes 12 seconds, bettering the former Asian record of 1:25:16 set by her tiol teammate Qieyang Shijie at 2012 Olympic Games in London, reports Xinhua. “I didn’t expect I can break the Asian record today. Before the race I just wanted to walk under 1:26:30,” said Lu. “During the race my coach told me that I had the chance to break the record and I was feeling quite good. So I decided to speed up and give it a try.”

Liu Hong, bronze medallist at Moscow worlds in 2013, finished second in 1:27:39. Nie Jingjing, also from the tiol training team, was 12 seconds adrift to finish third. IANS