A new British 20k record for Tom Bosworth

British No.1 race walker Tom Bosworth walked into the record books at the weekend when he broke a British record that had stood since 1988.

The 35th annual IAAF Race Walk Challenge was held in Dudince, Slovakia and Tom was in great form going into the weekend having beaten his own 3km indoor record just weeks earlier at the British Athletics Indoor Championships in Sheffield.

The 20km race walk is the Olympic distance that Tom is hopeful to be contesting in Rio this summer so this was a great opportunity for him to see where his winter training had left him in terms of performance.

Photo courtesy of Pavol Uhrin - fotosport.sk

After sitting at the back of the lead pack for the first 4km Tom decided to make a risky move and take the lead, over taking some of the big names in race walking in the process, and through working hard over the next few kilometres he had pulled out a gap of around 10 seconds at the half way point.

 

The next few kilometres were tough but by managing to grit his teeth and push through, Tom gave it his all to take victory and beat the British record for the 20km walk, that was originally set before he was even born, by 82 seconds.

You can follow Tom’s #RoadtoRio via his website www.tombosworth.com and on Twitter @tombosworth