Lisbon (AFP) - Portugal's Ines Henriques on Sunday set a first-ever world record in the newly-recognised women's 50km race walking event.

Henriques, who finished 12th in the 20km race walk at last year's Rio Olympics, covered the 50km in 4hr 8min 25sec during the Portuguese road walking championships.

Athletics' world governing body the IAAF said it would recognise the women's 50km race walk as an event from January 1, until then reserved just for men.

Before the event was recognised by the IAAF, the best time set over the distance was 4:10.59 by Sweden's Monica Svensson in 2007.