European Athletics Championships 2002/20 km walking for women

18th European Athletics Championships
discipline	20 km walk
gender	Women
Attendees	26 athletes from 14 countries
venue	Munich
Competition location	Circuit through Munich
Competition phase	August 7th
	Medalists
	Olimpiada Ivanova ( RUS )
	Jelena Nikolajewa ( RUS )
	Erica Alfridi ( ITA )

Stachus . View of Karlstor

The women's 20 km walk at the 2002 European Athletics Championships was held on August 7, 2002 in the streets of Munich . For the first time, the length of the walking competition for women was twenty kilometers. The previous distance has been doubled to match the short distance for men.

In this competition, the Russian walkers achieved a double victory. The reigning world champion and owner of the European best time Olimpiada Iwanowa became the European champion . She won ahead of Jelena Nikolajewa , who was Olympic champion in 1996 , Olympic second in 1992 , third in 1995 World Cup and third in 1994 European Championship over the 10 km distance . Bronze went to Erica Alfridi , the Italian EC runner-up in 1998 , when the length of this competition was still ten kilometers.

Records / best performances

Existing records / best performances

World record	1:26:22 h	China People's Republic Wang Yan	Guangzhou , People's Republic of China	November 19, 2001
European best time	1:24:50 h	Russia Olimpiada Ivanova	Adler , Russia	March 4, 2001
Championship record	This competition was held for the first time at European championships.

Note:
records were not held before 2002 in marathon running and street walking due to the different track conditions with the exception of championship records. The above world record time was the first performance of a walker to be classified as a record. From then on, the best times were also counted as records while walking.

First championship record

European champion Olimpiada Iwanowa set her first European Championship record with 1:26:42 h , which should last for many years. Russia

execution

There was no preliminary round, all 26 walkers went to the final together.

Result

Claudia Iovan, later Claudia Ștef, came in fifth

Annarita Sidoti came in eighth - she had won the European Championship four years earlier over the 10 km distance , was World Champion in 1997 and Vice European Champion in 1994

August 7, 2002

space	Surname	nation	Time (h)
1	Olimpiada Ivanova	Russia Russia	1:26:42 CR
2	Elena Nikolaeva	Russia Russia	1:28:20
3	Erica Alfridi	Italy Italy	1:28:33
4th	Gillian O'Sullivan	Ireland Ireland	1:28:46
5	Claudia Iovan	Romania Romania	1:29:57
6th	Elisabetta Perrone	Italy Italy	1:30:25
7th	Kristina Saltanovič	Lithuania 1989 Lithuania	1:30:44
8th	Annarita Sidoti	Italy Italy	1:31:19
9	Athanasía Tsoumeléka	Greece Greece	1: 31: 159
10	Eva Perez	Spain Spain	1:31:38
11	Athiná Papayiánni	Greece Greece	1:31:45
12	Beatrice Pascual	Spain Spain	1:32:38
13	Olive Loughnane	Ireland Ireland	1:33:08
14th	Melanie Seeger	Germany Germany	1:33:40
15th	Inês Henriques	Portugal Portugal	1:35:07
16	Nevena Mineva-Dimitrova	Bulgaria Bulgaria	1:35:28
17th	Vera Santos	Portugal Portugal	1:37:19
DNF	Susana Feitor	Portugal Portugal
	Jolanta Dukure	Latvia Latvia
	Maria Vasco	Spain Spain
	Sonata Milušauskaitė	Lithuania 1989 Lithuania
	Natalia Fedoshkina	Russia Russia
DSQ	Kjersti places	Norway Norway
	Elena Ginko	Belarus Belarus
	Olga Lukyanchuk	Ukraine Ukraine
	Norica Câmpean	Romania Romania

Beatriz Pascual reached number twelve
Melanie Seeger came in fourteenth place
Inês Henriques, here in fifteenth place - she later concentrated more on the 50 km distance and became world champion in 2017 and European champion in 2018
Vera Santos finished seventeenth
Susana Feitor did not reach the goal
María Vasco gave up the competition