# 1991 IAAF World Women's Road Race Championships

The 1991 IAAF World Women's Road Race Championships was the ninth and final edition of the annual international road running competition organised by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). The competition was hosted by the Netherlands on 13 October 1991 in Nieuwegein and featured one race only: a 15K run for women. 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.
Romania's Iulia Olteanu defended her title from the 1990 race with a winning time of 48:42 minutes. In the tightest ever finish seen in the competition's history, four women finished within the space of three seconds. Andrea Wallace of Great Britain took the runner-up spot while Germany's Uta Pippig edged out Soviet athlete Nadezhda Ilyina for third place by a fraction of a second. Pippig led Germany to its first team title at the competition with the former East German being backed up by former West German teammates Kerstin Pressler and Iris Biba. The Romanian women, headed by Olteanu, were two points adrift in second, with Georgeta State in seventh and Nuța Olaru in 16th place. In third, the Soviet Union took a sixth consecutive team medal (having reached the podium on every occasion it entered a team) through the performances of Ilyina, Marina Rodchenkova and Yelena Zhupiyeva.
The ending of this championships series coincided with the IAAF launching the 1992 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships a year later, thus a women's road world championship remained in the form of the half marathon distance.

## Results
### Individual

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time (m:s) |
| | Iulia Negură | Romania (ROM) | 48:42 |
| | Andrea Wallace | Great Britain (GBR) | 48:43 |
| | Uta Pippig | Germany (GER) | 48:44 |
| 4 | Nadezhda Ilyina | Soviet Union (URS) | 48:44 |
| 5 | Rosanna Munerotto | Italy (ITA) | 48:47 |
| 6 | Kerstin Pressler | Germany (GER) | 49:19 |
| 7 | Georgeta State | Romania (ROM) | 49:21 |
| 8 | Lidia Camberg | Poland (POL) | 49:24 |
| 9 | Conceição Ferreira | Portugal (POR) | 49:27 |
| 10 | Marina Rodchenkova | Soviet Union (URS) | 49:37 |
| 11 | Annick Clouvel | France (FRA) | 49:38 |
| 12 | Manuela Dias | Portugal (POR) | 49:38 |
| 13 | Iris Biba | Germany (GER) | 49:40 |
| 14 | Odile Ohier | France (FRA) | 49:46 |
| 15 | Wendy Ticehurst | Australia (AUS) | 49:55 |
| 16 | Nuța Olaru | Romania (ROM) | 50:13 |
| 17 | Yelena Zhupiyeva | Soviet Union (URS) | 50:14 |
| 18 | Heléna Barócsi | Hungary (HUN) | 50:20 |
| 19 | Fatuma Roba | Ethiopia (ETH) | 50:21 |
| 20 | Rosario Gangloff | France (FRA) | 50:24 |
| 21 | Gitte Karlshøj | Denmark (DEN) | 50:26 |
| 22 | Birgit Jerschabek | Germany (GER) | 50:30 |
| 23 | Isabella Moretti | Switzerland (SUI) | 50:33 |
| 24 | Felicidade Sena | Portugal (POR) | 50:34 |
| 25 | Allison Rabour | Italy (ITA) | 50:37 |
| 26 | Olga Appell | Mexico (MEX) | 50:41 |
| 27 | Marian Sutton | Great Britain (GBR) | 50:42 |
| 28 | Silvana Pereira | Brazil (BRA) | 50:45 |
| 29 | Wilma van Onna | Netherlands (NED) | 50:48 |
| 30 | Rizoneide Vanderlei | Brazil (BRA) | 50:50 |
| 31 | María Luisa Servín | Mexico (MEX) | 50:54 |
| 32 | Joy Smith | United States (USA) | 51:00 |
| 33 | Bettina Sabatini | Italy (ITA) | 51:06 |
| 34 | Annette Bell | Great Britain (GBR) | 51:21 |
| 35 | Lucilia Soares | Portugal (POR) | 51:28 |
| 36 | Ceri Pritchard | Great Britain (GBR) | 51:29 |
| 37 | Rita de Jesus | Brazil (BRA) | 51:30 |
| 38 | Margareta Florea | Romania (ROM) | 51:31 |
| 39 | Tigist Moreda | Ethiopia (ETH) | 51:32 |
| 40 | Christine Toonstra | Netherlands (NED) | 51:37 |
| 41 | Paola Cabrera | Mexico (MEX) | 51:40 |
| 42 | Benita Perez | Mexico (MEX) | 51:40 |
| 43 | Laura LaMena | United States (USA) | 51:42 |
| 44 | Maria Rebelo | France (FRA) | 51:49 |
| 45 | Lynn Clayton | Australia (AUS) | 51:50 |
| 46 | Maria-del Carmen Brunet | Spain (ESP) | 51:52 |
| 47 | Aino-Maria Slej | Denmark (DEN) | 52:04 |
| 48 | Rocío Ríos | Spain (ESP) | 52:10 |
| 49 | Anita Palshøj | Denmark (DEN) | 52:19 |
| 50 | Maria-Esther Pedrosa | Spain (ESP) | 52:22 |
| 51 | Tanya Turney | Australia (AUS) | 52:22 |
| 52 | Kelly dos Santos | Brazil (BRA) | 52:25 |
| 53 | Jennifer Martin | United States (USA) | 52:45 |
| 54 | Marjan Freriks | Netherlands (NED) | 52:46 |
| 55 | Joke Kleijweg | Netherlands (NED) | 52:53 |
| 56 | Berhane Adere | Ethiopia (ETH) | 53:11 |
| 57 | Lynn Deninno | United States (USA) | 53:40 |
| 58 | Lyudmila Matveyeva | Soviet Union (URS) | 53:48 |
| 59 | Nelly Glauser | Switzerland (SUI) | 53:56 |
| 60 | Vally Sathyabhama | India (IND) | 54:19 |
| 61 | Vilma Sanchez | Costa Rica (CRC) | 54:20 |
| 62 | Anne Lord | Australia (AUS) | 54:33 |
| 63 | Ursula Jeitziner | Switzerland (SUI) | 55:05 |
| 64 | Carmen Fuentes | Spain (ESP) | 55:08 |
| 65 | Maryse Justin | Mauritius (MRI) | 55:54 |
| 66 | Sunita Godara | India (IND) | 56:07 |

### Team

| Team | Points |
| Germany (GER) Uta Pippig Kerstin Pressler Iris Biba | 22 pts |
| Romania (ROM) Iulia Olteanu Georgeta State Nuța Olaru | 23 pts |
| Soviet Union (URS) Nadezhda Ilyina Marina Rodchenkova Yelena Zhupiyeva | 31 pts |