Evan Dunfee in Dudince (© Milan Duroch)
Evan Dunfee broke the world 35km race walk record* at the Dudince 50 – a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting – on Saturday (22).
The Canadian's 2:21:40 was seven seconds inside the short-lived 2:21:47 set by Japan’s Masatora Kawano last October in Takahata.
Dunfee race walked solo from gun to tape in Dudince, clicking off regular four-minute plus kilometres throughout.
The world and Olympic bronze medallist shattered his previous best at the distance (2:25:02) but, happy as he was with a first world mark, admitted he would have preferred the old major championship distance of 50km.
“I was well under pace, but then lost a little time over the last seven kilometres. I (then) got a little stressed out, but it was a dream come true.
“I would have liked it to be over 50km, my distance, but this is still very good, and I’m so proud to be on that winners plaque here at Dudince.”
Asked how he going to celebrate, the 34-year-old said that 2021 Olympic 50km champion Dawid Tomala would be first to benefit.
“Dawid did the drinks for me here for me which was really special and I want to repay him. So, this time the drinks are on me.”
Dunfee almost had time to get the first round ahead of runner-up Christopher Linke. The German’s reward for a steady race was a final time of 2:24:40, itself a 55-second improvement on his previous best.
Jose Doctor from Mexico was a close third, just one second behind, and like the German, another national record. In fact, the top nine after Dunfee set either national records or personal bests.
The start was greeted by a moderate 8 degrees, and late entrant Dunfee wasted no time setting his stall. A first lap of 4:09 left him 10 seconds clear of a group of nine and he added a two-second difference to that as he ramped up the pace.
He reached 3km in 12:15 with Doctor, Matteo Giupponi and Andrea Agrusti, David Hurtado, Linke and others going further away. That lead by the Canadian was 27 seconds a lap later and at 5km (20:18) a full 30 seconds in front.
Dunfee was clearly aiming for laps of about four minutes each, while the chasers were slipping further back. In fact, those chasers had started to fragment at 6km. By 10km, that gap was a chasm.
Dunfee recorded 40:22; next was Giupponi with five on his coattails, all at 41:38. A third group headed by César Herrera from Colombia was a further 12 seconds back. Dunfee reached 15km in 1:00:26 – barring a major collapse, it was over and out for top spot.
The chasers, two minutes adrift, were now down to three: Giupponi, Linke, Doctor had nine seconds on Hurtado and Julio Salazar, Mexico.
Dunfee hit 20km in 1:20:28, and well on course for the world record. Behind him, Giupponi got shed from the chasing three a lap later, trailing by seven seconds, soon to get bigger. Dunfee remained on world record schedule at 25km (1:40:36).
The slightest of cracks was beginning to show ever so slightly at 30km (2:00.59). His clocking for the 33rd lap was a slower 4:07; but a 4:06 on the penultimate lap stopped the clock at 2:17:32.
Mouth open and checking his watch, Dunfee squeezed out every last second, but knew his reward was secured over the final 50m and a place in the record books.
Ecuador’s Paula Torres took the women’s 35km in 2:44:26, a significant improvement on her previous best of 2:51:42 set just last month on home soil.
In contrast to the men’s race where Dunfee led throughout, the women’s race see-sawed all the way to the last 7km. It was there that Torres made a decisive break to put daylight between herself and a small group of six.
At 30km, just two laps later, she was 49 seconds ahead of second, and going further away. She finished in 2:44:26, 49 seconds ahead of two-time world champion Kimberly Garcia: (2:45:59) and double world champion silver medallist Katarzyna Zdzieblo, third in 2:46:59.
The women started a minute behind the men and were in no hurry to emulate Dunfee. Nine crossed the first kilometre mark in a modest 4:51 but revved it up a notch by the second circuit (9:36).
The pace remained steady through 5km at 23:51, with Viviane Lyra from Brazil, Garcia, Olena Sobchuk, Magaly Bonilla and Johana Ordonez, Goswami Priyanka and Torres still tightly knit.
They increased the tempo a little to reach 10km in 47:31. And two laps later, Garcia, Zdzieblo and Ordonez inched a four-second advantage on the others. Torres quickly joined them, but everyone else appeared to be going backwards by 15km (1:11:06).
Ordonez threw down the gauntlet five minutes later to gain seven seconds on everyone else at 20km (1:34:30). Garcia looked like she was suffering, but she managed to get back in contention.
At the front, it was all change again at 22km with Torres this time attempting a break. She reached 25km in 1:58:05 but still had a three-person shadow a mere six seconds back.
Then truly the gloves came off with large gaps beginning to appear throughout the top seven manifested by Ordonez, Lyra, Bonilla and a hometown success for Hana Burzalova in that order, with the Slovak claiming seventh place.
The women’s 20km went down to the last 200 metres before Lyudmila Olyanovska finally broke the stranglehold held by Eleonora Giorgi.
The 35-year-old Italian and 2019 world 50km bronze medallist refused to yield until the final straight when the Ukrainian made a winning sprint for the line, winning in 1:28:28 to Giorgi’s 1:28:32. The next three women – Hanna Shevchuk, Ilse Guerrero and Nicole Colombi – also finished inside 1:29.
Colombia’s Mateo Romero stepped into the limelight to lift the men’s 20km title in a PB of 1:20:17.
He made a winning move at 13km and never looked back, eventually winning by 40 seconds ahead of Mazium Demir and Ukraine’s Mukola Rushchak.
Paul Warburton for World Athletics
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure
