1985 IAAF World Women's Road Race Championships

The 1985 IAAF World Women's Road Race Championships was the third edition of the annual international road running competition organised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). The competition was hosted by the United Kingdom on 3 November 1985 in Gateshead and featured one race only: a 15K run for women. This was the first time that the distance was contested at the championships, having previously been a 10K run, and this was a permanent change. There were individual and team awards available, with the national team rankings being decided by the combined finishing positions of a team's top three runners. Countries with fewer than three finishers were not ranked.^[1]

The race was won by Portugal's Aurora Cunha in a time of 49:17 minutes, completing a successful defence of her title from 1984. Judi St. Hilaire of the United States finished eight seconds later in second place, while Great Britain's Carole Bradford came third for a second year running. As she had the year before, Bradford led the British women to the team title (alongside fifth place Paula Fudge and Wendy Sly in eleventh). The Soviet Union's team, featuring Lyudmila Matveyeva in fourth and two other top ten finishers in and Yelena Sipatova, was just one point behind in the team race. St Hilaire helped the American women to the bronze medal team position (backed up by Nancy Ditz and ).

Results[]

Individual[]

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time (m:s)
	Aurora Cunha	Portugal (POR)	49:17
	Judi St. Hilaire	United States (USA)	49:25
	Carole Bradford	Great Britain (GBR)	49:59
4	Lyudmila Matveyeva	Soviet Union (URS)	50:28
5	Paula Fudge	Great Britain (GBR)	50:36
6	Donna Gould	Australia (AUS)	50:42
7		Soviet Union (URS)	50:56
8	Anna Villani	Italy (ITA)	51:00
9	Yelena Sipatova	Soviet Union (URS)	51:08
10	Ellen Wessinghage	West Germany (FRG)	51:29
11	Wendy Sly	Great Britain (GBR)	51:40
12	Dorthe Rasmussen	Denmark (DEN)	51:48
13		Soviet Union (URS)	51:51
14		Great Britain (GBR)	51:53
15	Christina Mai	West Germany (FRG)	51:54
16	Nancy Ditz	United States (USA)	51:57
17	Ann Ford	Great Britain (GBR)	52:01
18		West Germany (FRG)	52:06
19		United States (USA)	52:13
20		Japan (JPN)	52:18
21	Conceição Ferreira	Portugal (POR)	52:20
22	Danièle Kaber	Luxembourg (LUX)	52:23
23	Rosanna Munerotto	Italy (ITA)	52:30
24	Elly van Hulst	Netherlands (NED)	52:32
25	Antonella Bizioli	Italy (ITA)	52:35
26	Yvonne Murray	Great Britain (GBR)	52:38
27		Portugal (POR)	52:40
28	Sinikka Keskitalo	Finland (FIN)	52:43
29		China (CHN)	52:45
30		United States (USA)	52:51
31	Jocelyne Villeton	France (FRA)	52:52
32		Hong Kong (HKG)	53:05
33	Xiao Hongyan	China (CHN)	53:08
34	Maria Rebelo	France (FRA)	53:09
35		Poland (POL)	53:11
36	Ailish Smyth	Ireland (IRL)	53:15
37		Finland (FIN)	53:17
38		Australia (AUS)	53:18
39	Françoise Bonnet	France (FRA)	53:35
40		Finland (FIN)	53:37
41	Ľudmila Melicherová	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	53:40
42		France (FRA)	53:42
43		Ireland (IRL)	53:45
44		Spain (ESP)	53:52
45	Kerstin Pressler	West Germany (FRG)	54:01
46		Denmark (DEN)	54:04
47	Nikolina Shtereva	Bulgaria (BUL)	54:08
48		Denmark (DEN)	54:11
49		Netherlands (NED)	54:13
50		Poland (POL)	54:15
51	Jenny Lund	Australia (AUS)	54:20
52		Ireland (IRL)	54:21
53	Albertina Dias	Portugal (POR)	54:31
54		Austria (AUT)	54:32
55		Spain (ESP)	54:36
56	?
57	Tuija Toivonen	Finland (FIN)	55:02
58	Odette Lapierre	Canada (CAN)	55:11
59		Poland (POL)	55:13
61		Poland (POL)	55:53
62	?
63	Gitte Karlshøj	Denmark (DEN)	56:00
65	Maryse Justin	Mauritius (MRI)	57:01
66	?
67		Spain (ESP)	57:11

Team[]

Rank	Team	Points
	Great Britain (GBR) Carole Bradford Paula Fudge Wendy Sly	19 pts
	Soviet Union (URS) Lyudmila Matveyeva Yelena Sipatova	20 pts
	United States (USA) Judi St Hilaire Nancy Ditz	36 pts

References[]