Athletics Canada selected Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman to compete in the 2024 World Race Walking Championships. The event is taking place in Antalya, Türkiye on April 21.
This year’s Championships will be the first international event for the Marathon Mixed Race Walk Relay. It will function as a qualifying race for 22 teams to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer.
Dunfee holds two North American and five national records from 10,000m to the 50-kilometre race walk. The 33-year-old Greater Vancouver-based (Richmond, BC) race walker has earned two bronze medals one each in the Olympic Games and World Championships, respectively. Both medals came in the 50K event. Dunfee has also won gold medals during the Commonwealth and Pan American Games. He is a nine-time national champion.
The 21-year-old Nanaimo, BC Lundman currently holds the national U20 record in the 10,000m event having walked 47:24.73 at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops two years ago. Last year, she had an impressive result in Philadelphia clocking 22:53.68 at Franklin Field in the 5000m race. At McLeod Field in Langley, BC (Greater Vancouver), Lundman won the national 20,000m race walk championships in a fast 1:42.11.
From Athletics Canada
From Athletics Canada’s media release on March 29, Dunfee said, “It is an incredibly important race for us as it will determine if we have a team at the Olympics this summer. I’ll be heading to Türkiye a couple weeks early to prepare. Obviously, the goal is to be one of those top 22 teams.”
“This event is a key race in the qualification process for the Olympics this summer. The top 22 teams at this championships will qualify for Paris, with only 3 teams for the Olympics being selected from outside this event,” said Lundman. “Due to the new nature of the relay event, this race will provide Evan and I with a valuable opportunity to fine-tune our race tactics, assess our current form against international competition, and identify areas for improvement.
Dunfee and Lundman are no strangers, having competed together at the 2022 Race Walking Team Championships, in addition to Dunfee taking on a coaching role for Lundman.
“Teaming up with Olivia Lundman is also really exciting. This year I began coaching Olivia with my coach, Gerry Dragomir, taking a step back,” he explained. “So not only do I get to work with Olivia in her preparation for the event, we will actually get to race on the same team.”
“Representing my country in a World Championships event is always a great honour,” Lundman said. “Competing against the world’s best athletes is both humbling and inspiring. It’s an opportunity to showcase the culmination of my efforts, alongside athletes from all across the globe.”
