Good newsHenderson Breaks Women’s Marathon Race Walk Record on Her Debut, Walking Alone
Australia’s Rebecca Henderson walked 3:14:52 in the rain at Takahata, Japan, to beat the women’s marathon race walk world record by 19 seconds. Japan’s Masatora Kawano set the first men’s record the same day, subject to ratification.
This story runs on the good side only. The biggest stories of the day are told on both sides.
Rebecca Henderson made her marathon race walk debut on Sunday and finished it as the world record holder. The 25-year-old Australian covered the 42.195 kilometers in 3 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds at the All Japan Race Walking meeting in Takahata, according to World Athletics. The mark is subject to the usual ratification procedure.
Alone from start to finish
Henderson beat the 3:15:11 set by Italy’s Sofia Fiorini at the European Championships in Birmingham in August, a margin of 19 seconds. That works out at about 4:37 per kilometer. She did it in pouring rain, on a course with a slight rise and fall of around a metre each lap, which World Athletics notes walkers must climb 42 times.
She had no one to chase. World Athletics says Henderson race walked solo from the gun with a steady, powerful rhythm and passed many men in the large field once the early charge settled. At 20.195 kilometers she was at 1:33:39 with a lead of more than six minutes over Ayane Yanai. The gap was 8:04 at 25 kilometers and about 14 minutes at the finish.
Yanai’s 3:29:10 for second place was still a Japanese record. Masumi Fuchise was third in 3:38:42.
A new event finds its feet
The half marathon and marathon only became official race walk distances on 1 January 2026, so every mark in them is young. Henderson’s record is less than three months after Fiorini’s, which suggests the standard is still moving fast.
| Athlete | Time | Where | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rebecca Henderson (Australia) | 3:14:52 | Takahata, Japan | 25 October 2026 |
| Sofia Fiorini (Italy) | 3:15:11 | Birmingham, European Championships | August 2026 |
Japan’s Masatora Kawano, a former 35 kilometer world record holder, was in a group of five until he put the hammer down at 36 kilometers. Only Kazuya Iwai could chase, and he was 15 metres back at that point before taking second in 2:55:55, with Kazuki Takahashi third in 2:56:45. Katsuki and Satoshi Maruo were fourth and fifth in 2:56:59 and 2:57:07, so the depth of the field is part of the story. His winning 2:55:14 was the first men’s marathon world record, and it beat the 2:55:28 that Hayato Katsuki walked on the same course in 2025. World Athletics had set 2:56:30 as the performance standard for an official men’s record, and Kawano cleared it on his own marathon debut.
Who else moved
Australian Elizabeth McMillen won the women’s half marathon in 1:31:31, the fifth-fastest time recorded in that new event. Her previous best was 1:38:29, set earlier this year, so she trimmed nearly seven minutes in about seven months. The record also follows an Australian sweep of the women’s 10,000 meter race walk podium at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August, where Henderson took bronze, Nine reports.
What it means
Henderson is a two-time Olympian from Melbourne with a biomedical science degree, Nine reports. Beyond the records, the times at Takahata matter for qualification: the first five men all went under the standard needed for World Athletics Championships Beijing 27 eligibility. Whether the women’s record stands depends on ratification, which is routine but not instant. The women’s and men’s marks both carry an asterisk until then. For now, the number is 3:14:52 and the walker who made it was alone for the last 14 minutes.
