The Chinese athlete posted a time of 1 hour 23min 49sec, becoming the first woman to dip below the 1:24:00 mark in the record books.

Yang's time - which is yet to be ratified by World Athletics - provisionally takes 49 seconds off the previous world record set by compatriot Liu Hong, the Olympic champion.

Liu set a new personal best in Huangshan - 1:24:27 - to finish second.

Liu, 33, is also the reigning world champion and a three-time winner of that title, while 25-year-old Yang was the world champion in 2017.

Yang was disqualified at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, but China still locked out the podium.

Russian athlete Elena Lashmanova posted a 20km race walk time of 1:23:39 at the Russian Race Walking Championships in Cheboksary in 2018, but that is not recognised by World Athletics as the world record.

Lashmanova, the Olympic champion at London 2012, served a suspension after those Games for using GW1516 - banned because of its performance-enhancing capabilities and illegal across much of the globe after clinical trials found it can cause cancer.

The Russian Athletics Federation was suspended in 2018, and still is to this day.

Yang's provisional world record came on a banner day for Chinese race walking as Wang Kaihua won the men's 20km contest in a national record of 1:16:54, the third-fastest time ever and only 18 seconds off the world record.

Wang is the reigning Asian Games champion over 20km, as is Yang.