An already most memorable 2015 has got even better for Evan Dunfee.
The Richmond racewalker, who won gold back in July at the Pan American Games, shattered the Canadian record in capturing the Australian 50km Road Walking Championships on Sunday in Melbourne.
In the process, the 25-year-old easily achieved the Canadian federation qualifying standard for the Rio Summer Olympic Games with a time of 3:43:45, shaving more than six minutes off the personal best he set when finishing 12th at this summer’s IAAF World Championships Beijing.
Dunfee had earlier reached the Olympic qualifying standard in 20 km event. He has been training Down Under with Canadian teammates Inaki Gomez and Ben Thorne.
“Last month in Australia here I’ve been training in a supernova study down in Canberra,” said Dunfee, who finished second in this race last year in what was then a PB of 3:58:34. “I’m in really good shape, so I knew I was ready for a big one. I wasn’t sure whether it would be a hard or fast race really, so I didn’t really make my decision until about 3km into the race and I thought I’d go for it.”
Held on a two-kilometre loop in Fawkner Park, the event got underway with a steady start. Thorne, the World Championship bronze medalist over 20 km, was treating the race as a training exercise and built up a significant early lead before withdrawing after eight laps.
At 10km, Dunfee was already two minutes ahead of the chasing pack. He continued to churn out the sub-nine-minute laps and he reached the 20km mark in just a shade outside 90 minutes with a lead of more than four minutes.
Having covered the first half in 1:52:18, Dunfee knew with 25km left that he was on course to break the Canadian record of 3:47:48 that had stood since 1981, nine years before he was born.
Dunfee went through the 40km checkpoint comfortably inside three hours and he kept up the swift pace to the end, winning with the seventh-fastest time in the world this year.
“I’m really happy with it and it felt really good,” he added. “I think there’s a bit more in the tank there when push comes to shove. I’ve taken 14 minutes off my PB this year; another 14 minutes and we’re good!
“This course is so easy to walk on, it’s by far my favourite course. It makes it so much easier to get into a rhythm and keep it.”
Dunfee says he will keep focusing on both the 20 and 50 km distances. His Canadian 20 km record fell to Thorne’s performance at the World Championships.
“After losing my 20km record to Ben in Beijing, I wanted a bit of redemption,” added Dunfee. “I wanted to get the 50km record in Beijing but I sort of blew up at 42km. So I came in here and smashed it and it felt great. I’m happy to get one Canadian record back.”
Australia’s Chris Erickson broke a national record in finishing just over 10 minutes behind Dunfee. South Africa’s Marc Mundell also set a new mark for his country and placed third.
