The women's 20 kilometres walk at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held on National Athletics Centre in Budapest on 20 August 2023. 48 athletes from 23 nations entered to the event.
Summary
The cream rose to the top quickly as a group of about a dozen separated, led by world record holder Jiayu Yang. Defending champion Kimberly García León took the point after the first lap and held the lead of the tight group through the halfway point as the lead pack whittled down to seven. After falling early in the race, Antonella Palmisano edged ahead to carry the lead to 15k. While most of the 1 kilometer laps had been in the 4:20's, on the 16th lap María Pérez dropped a monster 4:06 lap. Only Jemima Montag was able to produce any answer with a 4:10, which separated her from the rest of the pack but still 4 seconds down to Perez, who continued with a 4:09, 4:05 and 4:06 to leave no doubt about winning, ultimately 25 seconds ahead of Montag. Palmisano was able to get a slight edge on Alegna González and Glenda Morejón then had to hold off a 4:08 final lap by García León to take bronze.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:
The following records were set at the competition:
Qualification standard
The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 1:29:20.
Schedule
The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:
Results
The race was started at 07:15. The results were as follows: