Women’s 10000m walk final
Steven Downes for IAAF
20 October 2000 – In an impressive display of heel-and-toe, Lyudmila Yefimkina and Tatyana Kozlova completed a Russian one-two in the women’s 10,000 metres track walk on the fourth day at the World Junior Championships here.
After working together for nine-tenths distance, the elfin Yefimkina got away from her taller team mate in the last two laps, managing the fastest kilometre split of the race at the end (4:14.20), and clocking 44min 07.74sec at the finish, with Kozlova establishing a lifetime best 44:24.43.
The two Russians had led the year’s rankings coming to Santiago, more than two minutes faster than the best non-Russian in 2000.
In Santiago, the Russian pair set a fierce pace, passing halfway in 22:04.35.
Once their closest challengers, Min Han and Kelian Gao, were disqualified out of the competition, the Russians were able to lap all their remaining rivals, including bronze medallist Sabine Zimmer, who set a German junior record with her 46:49.97.
There were also national junior records for Greece (Athanasia Tsoumeleka, fourth with 47:10.96), France (Melissa Rodriguez, seventh, 47:57.88), Yugoslavia (Ankica Barzut, 13th, 50:25.00) and El Salvador (Cristina Lopez, 20th, 53:12.90).
