World Athletics Championships 1997/10 km women's walking

6th World Athletics Championships
discipline	10 km walk
gender	Women
Attendees	20 walkers from 9 countries
venue	Athens
Competition location	Circuit through Athens
Competition phase	August 7th
Medalists Annarita Sidoti ( ITA )   Wolha Kardapolzawa ( BLR )   Valyanzina Zybulskaya ( BLR )

The women's 10 km at the 1997 World Athletics Championships was held on August 7, 1997 in the streets of the Greek capital, Athens .

The discipline was in this form for the last time on the program of athletics world championships . From 1999 the length of the route was increased to the usual distance of twenty kilometers for men.

In this competition the Belarusian walkers won two medals, silver and bronze. World champion was the Italian Annarita Sidoti , who had previously done successfully as the winner in 1990 and runner-up in 1994 , especially at European championships . Silver went to the Vice European Champion from 1990 Wolha Kardapolzawa . Valjanzina Zybulskaja won the bronze medal.

Existing records / best performances

World record	41:04 min	Elena Nikolaeva	Sochi , Russia	April 20, 1996
World championship record	42:13 min	Irina Stankina	World Cup 1995 in Gothenburg , Sweden	August 7, 1995

View from the Acropolis on Athens in 2008

Note:
At that time, records were not kept in marathon running and street walking because of the different track conditions with the exception of championship records.

The existing world championship record was not set and not improved at these world championships.

doping

The walking competition was overshadowed by a doping case.

The Russian Olimpiada Iwanowa , initially a silver medalist, was convicted of doping with steroids and was disqualified.

The main victim was the Belarusian Valjanzina Zybulskaja , who received her bronze medal late and was unable to attend the award ceremony.

execution

There was no preliminary round, all twenty walkers competed together for the final.

Result

Anita Liepina (right) finished eighth

Beate Gummelt gave up the competition early

August 7, 1997, 6:00 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Annarita Sidoti	Italy	42: 55.49 WL
2	Wolha Kardapolzawa	Belarus	43: 30.20
3	Valyanzina Zybulskaya	Belarus	43: 49.24
4th	Liu Hongyu	People's Republic of China	43: 56.86
5	Erica Alfridi	Italy	43: 59.73
6th	Anikó Szebenszky	Hungary	44: 14.94
7th	Gu Yan	People's Republic of China	44: 24.17
8th	Anita Liepina	Latvia	45: 00.56
9	Elena Nikolaeva	Russia	45: 01.90
10	Elisabetta Perrone	Italy	45: 16.64
11	Maria Urbánikné-Rosza	Hungary	45: 36.57
12	Wang Yan	People's Republic of China	46: 21.69
13	Svetlana Tolstaya	Kazakhstan	47: 09.51
14th	Yuka Mitsumori	Japan	47: 24.22
DNF	Laryssa Kmyalnitskaya	Belarus
	Beate Gummelt	Germany
DSQ	Olga Panfyorova	Russia
	Irina Stankina	Russia
	Maya Sazonova	Kazakhstan
DOP	Olimpiada Ivanova	Russia

Video

• ATLETICA MONDIALI ATENE 1997 10KM MARCIA DONNE ORO ANNARITA SIDOTI , video published on February 18, 2015 on youtube.com (Italian), accessed on July 4, 2020

Web links

• 6th IAAF World Championships In Athletics , accessed July 4, 2020
• Women 10km Walk Athletics VI World Championship 1997 Athens (GRE) on todor66.com, accessed July 4, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Women 10km Walk, Athens 1997, p. 361 (PDF; 10.3 MB), English, accessed on July 4, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ^ Track and Field Statistics Records Progression - World Records. Women, 10 km Road Walk on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed July 4, 2020
2. ↑ Ivanova stripped of silver after positive drug test on apnews.com, August 10, 1997, accessed June 29, 2020