• Spain’s Maria Perez defends both women’s race walk titles in Tokyo
• Home athlete Nanako Fujii is fastest on 2025 times
• China’s world record-holder and Olympic champion Yang Jiayu is planning golden season debut

Maria Perez will defend both her 20km and 35km race walk titles at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.

The 29-year-old Spaniard, who earned Olympic 20km silver in Paris last summer behind China’s world record-holder Yang Jiayu, has strong prospects at both distances. 

She tops this year’s list at 35km and is second on the entry list in the shorter distance with the 1:27.22 she clocked in winning at La Coruna on 7 June.

The fastest 2025 performer in Tokyo is home hope Nanako Fujii, who recorded a time of 1:26.33 in Kobe on 16 February.

The 26-year-old from Nagakawa, who finished seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and earned silver at the 2022 Asian Games, will be operating under a huge weight of expectation.

Australia’s world silver medallist and Paris Olympic bronze medallist Jemma Montag was forced to abandon her preparations for these championships last month when she required surgery on her hamstring. That took one strong medal challenger from the event – but many remain.

Not least Yang, who secured her spot via wild card as the winner of the 2024 World Race Walking Tour. She has yet to race this season but her potential for earning a second world title to go with the one she won as a 21-year-old at the 2017 World Championships in London looks ominously good.

Two of her three teammates, Ma Li and Peng Li, are respectively the third and fifth fastest in the field according to this year’s performances, having clocked 1:27.28 and 1:27.45. Wu Quanming, meanwhile, has clocked 1:28:06.

The Chinese team will be working for a repeat of their performance at the 2019 Doha World Championships, where then world record-holder Liu Hong, Qieyang Shijie and Yang Liujing completed a medal sweep.

The chances of them repeating that feat are remote given the depth of talent involved from around the world.

Peru’s Kimberly Garcia Leon has established herself as a consistent high performer at global level in recent years. She secured the world title in Oregon in 2022, also winning the 35km race. 

A year later at the Budapest World Championships, she missed a 20km medal by one place, but came away with 35km silver. The 31-year-old has the talent and experience to make another world podium in Tokyo and is giving herself two chances to do so.

Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez, fourth fastest in the field on this season’s times having clocked 1:27.32, is another clear medal contender, as is Ecuador’s Paula Torres, who has set a personal best of 1:28:29 this year.

Viviane Lyra of Brazil, who has clocked 1:28.30 this year and has a personal best of 1:27.13, is another one to watch.

Also expected to play a major role in the race will be Italy’s 34-year-old Antonella Palmisano. Gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, she won world bronze in Budapest and then secured the 2024 European title in front of her home fans in Rome.

She will be keen to put behind her the memory of her failure to finish the race at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics