World Champs Men’s 35K Walk — Dunfee Scores Global Gold At Last

The 50K bronze medalist at the ’19 Worlds and ’21 OG, Evan Dunfee has now added the shiniest medal to his collection. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

THE LATE, GREAT George Goulding finally has some company. It’s only taken 113 years for him to arrive.

Not since Ontario’s Goulding struck gold (over 10,000m) at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics had Team Canada produced a global racewalking champion. All that changed in the early, opening hours of the 20th World Championships with the epic, perfectly-paced, come-from-behind 35km win by British Columbia’s Evan Dunfee.

The soon-to-be 35-year-old, former NAIA walk champion for UBC, who’d been knocking on the door of global gold for more than a decade and a half, finally crashed through that golden portal. He did it with a 2:28:22 triumph over the 21.7-mile course that opened with three-plus laps around the National Stadium track, continued with 16 circuits of a 2K road loop, and concluded with the final 350 meters back on the stadium track.

The clocking will not go down in the books as a WC meet record — it was not even close to 2022 winner Massimo Stano of Italy’s 2:23:14 at Eugene — but was hugely impressive in the steamy Tokyo conditions. Perfect pacing, perfect technique put him on top.

Germany’s Christopher Linke led the way out of the stadium, Japan’s Hayato Katsuki and Masatora Kawano, and Ecuador’s David Hurtado pushed the midrace pace, but as they eventually faded (Hurtado suffering a 3½ minute time penalty), Dunfee powered to the front and, despite some hamstring tightness, stormed on to the biggest triumph of his life.

Brazil’s Caio Bonfim moved late, too, and claimed silver (2:28:55) with Katsuki gutting it out for bronze (2:29:16.) Typifying racewalking’s global reach, 11 nations and 5 continents (all but Africa) were represented in the top 11.

Handed a Canadian flag as he re-entered the stadium, Dunfee carried it overhead as he walked home in triumph, dropped to the track after crossing the finish line, soon rose up in joy, and embraced many of his pursuers as they followed him over the line.

A racewalker since age 10, Dunfee called it “really, a dream come true”

“I am turning 35 [on September 28] but I just feel like I am getting better and better.

“Everyone who knows me knows that I can become better in the second half of the race. Still, the last 2 kilometers felt like the hardest ones I have ever done. I had to channel all my strength for all the people back home.

“When I was struggling today, I was just thinking, one more step, one more step.’’

Said Bonfim, “we may not have many Brazilian fans here, but I felt their energy.”

Said Katsuki, “I would like to show to all Japanese people that race walk is a very beautiful and attractive event; I want to make it much more popular in our country. Today’s race was a bit crazy. Maybe it looked like I lost power, but my rule is to never give up.”

In the heat, though, there were many casualties. Of the 49 starters, there were just 34 finishers, with 5 DQs. But gutting out 20th in 2:38:20 was 49-year-old Joao Vieira of Portugal, competing in a record 14th Worlds.

Dunfee’s portfolio had already been brilliant. He’s earned NAIA, NACAC, Pan Am Cup and Commonwealth golds, Olympic and Worlds bronzes. And he — and many of his 35K rivals — will probably be back for the Tokyo 20K.

Dunfee will also go down in the books as the third and last WC 35K titlist; walk distances at the 2027 WC in Beijing — and presumably for Worlds to follow — will be half (21.1K) and full (42.2K) marathons. But the 2028 LA Olympics will only include a half-marathon walk.

MEN’S 35K WALK RESULTS

(September 13)

1. Evan Dunfee (Can) 2:28:22

(21:29, 20:59 [42:28], 20:31 [1:02:59], 21:06 [1:24:05], 21:13 [1:45:18], 21:19 [2:06:37], 21:45);

2. Caio Bonfim (Bra) 2:28:55

(21:30, 21:06 [42:36], 20:28 [1:03:04], 21:05 [1:24:09], 21:21 [1:45:30], 21:59 [2:07:29], 21:26);

3. Hayato Katsuki (Jpn) 2:29:16

(21:27, 20:58 [42:25], 20:39 [1:03:04], 20:49 [1:23:53], 20:53 [1:44:46], 22:13 [2:06:59], 22:17);

4. Yingcheng Zhou (Chn) 2:29:31;

5. Aurelien Quinion (Fra) 2:30:24;

6. Daniel Chamosa (Spa) 2:30:42;

7. Dominik Černý (Svk) 2:31:17;

8. Riccardo Orsoni (Ita) 2:31:39;

9. David Hurtado (Ecu) 2:32:35; 10. Maher Ben Hlima (Pol) 2:33:08; 11. Rhydian Cowley (Aus) 2:33:28; 12. Miguel Ángel López (Spa) 2:33:45; 13. Manuel Bermúdez (Spa) 2:35:19; 14. Christopher Linke (Ger) 2:36:10; 15. Matheus Gabriel Correa (Bra) 2:36:35 PR; 16. Jonathan Hilbert (Ger) 2:36:47; 17. Johannes Frenzl (Ger) 2:36:47; 18. Masatora Kawano (Jpn) 2:37:15; 19. Perseus Karlström (Swe) 2:37:47;

20. João Vieira (Por) 2:38:20; 21. Kevin Campion (Fra) 2:39:12; 22. Bence Venyercsán (Hun) 2:39:14; 23. Sandeep Kumar Sangwan (Ind) 2:39:15; 24. Raivo Saulgriezis (Lat) 2:40:19; 25. Will Thompson (Aus) 2:40:19; 26. Satoshi Maruo (Jpn) 2:40:29; 27. Max Batista Dos Santos (Bra) 2:41:04; 28. Oisin Lane (Ire) 2:41:36; 29. Aléxandros Papamihaíl (Gre) 2:42:07; 30. Oscar Oswaldo Patín (Ecu) 2:43:48; 31. Vít Hlaváč (CzR) 2:44:08; 32. Mitchell Baker (Aus) 2:51:11; 33. Yassir Cabrera (Pan) 2:51:37; 34. Cameron Corbishley (GB) 2:52:15;

… dq—Ram Baboo (Ind), Teodorico Caporaso (Ita), César Alberto Herrera (Col), José Montaña (Col), Yehor Shelest (Ukr), Jinrui Zhang (Chn);

… dnf—Ivan Banzeruk (Ukr), José Luis Doctor (Mex), Matteo Giupponi (Ita), Ihor Hlavan (Ukr), Min-kue Kim (SK), Javier Mena (Ecu), Michal Morvay (Svk), Andrés Olivas (Mex), Julio César Salazar (Mex), Qin Wang (Chn).

(leader 5Ks: Katsuki 21:27, 42:25, 62:51, 1:23:53, 1:44:46; Kawano 2:06:28)

Sixty-three years ago, ’56 racewalk Olympian Elliott Denman, representing the New York Pioneer Club, won the 3000 walk at the U.S. nationals held in Boulder, Colorado, clocking 13:52.2. In a long journalistic career he has covered every outdoor World Championships since the first in 1983.

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