It was a big day for Evan Dunfee and more specifically Canada’s race walk team at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Beijing.
The 24-year-old from Richmond finished 13th in Sunday’s 20 km event with a seasonal best clocking of 1:21.48 — nearly two seconds better than his winning time a month earlier at the Pan American Games in Toronto. More importantly, he was under the Olympic standard for the 2016 Summer Games and will have plenty of familiar company too.
Training partners Ben Thorne and Inaki Gomez also locked up their spots in Rio by finishing third and 15th respectively. Thorne, a 22-year-old from Kitimat set a new Canadian record (1:19.57) in the process. All three are coached by Gerry Dragomir.
“My relationship with Evan and Inaki is definitely a special one, I don’t know what I would do without them. They’re the ones that motivate me to get out of bed in the morning and get out to practice,” said an elated Thorne.
“To be honest, I was hoping for top eight. As the race went on I thought, well I feel pretty good, a bunch of people went off about 14k, I still felt decent so I went with it, to see if I can hang on. All of a sudden I was in fourth and the guy in front of me got disqualified, I was thinking, I have never been in this position before… I am completely overwhelmed right now, and the national record is a bonus.”
Dunfee credits their group’s success on race walking being part of the British Columbia High School program.
“That has a huge impact on getting kids started younger, and then carrying it through,” he said.
The McNair and UBC grad has also been very vocal about banning repeated drug cheats and arguably played a significant role in the banning of a large group of Russian walkers. “I was very confident on the start line that the large majority of the athletes were clean, that’s what we’ve been fighting for all year.”
Gomez is thrilled with what he and his training partners have accomplished this summer.
“Ben’s performance was huge, he came in shape and ready to go, he just took off. Shows the strength of our group. I’m ecstatic about the group, while the support from Athletics Canada, Own the Podium and Sport Canada has been great. Watch out in Rio. We have three medal threats in this event.”
Dunfee is also slated to compete in the 50 km race on Saturday.
