The1991IAAF World Women's Road Race Championships was the ninth and final edition of the annual internationalroad running competition organised by theInternational Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). The competition was hosted by the Netherlands on 13 October 1991 inNieuwegein and featured one race only: a15K 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.[1]
Romania'sIulia Olteanu defended her title from the1990 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'sUta Pippig edged out Soviet athleteNadezhda 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 teammatesKerstin Pressler andIris Biba. The Romanian women, headed by Olteanu, were two points adrift in second, withGeorgeta State in seventh andNuța 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 andYelena Zhupiyeva.[2]
The ending of this championships series coincided with the IAAF launching the1992 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships a year later, thus a women's road world championship remained in the form of thehalf marathon distance.
| Rank | 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 |
World Championships organised byWorld Athletics | |
|---|---|
| Outdoor | |
| Indoor | |
| Continental Cup* | |
| U20 | |
| U18 | |
| Cross Country | |
| Race Walking | |
| Women's Road Race | |
| Marathon | |
| Half Marathon | |
| Road Relay | |
| Relays | |
| Ultimate | |
| Road Running | |
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