Canadian Olympic Athlete Evan Dunfee will be race walking the 2017 BMO Vancouver Marathon. Photo: courtesy of Evan Dunfee
OLYMPIC RACE WALKERS TO WALK THE BMO VANCOUVER MARATHON
World-class race walkers, Evan Dunfee of Canada and Marc Mundell of South Africa will be race walking the 2017 BMO Vancouver Marathon
Having competed against each other in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics 50KM Walk, Olympic race walkers Evan Dunfee of Canada and Marc Mundell of South Africa are meeting again, this time in Vancouver, Canada.
On Sunday, May 7, Evan Dunfee and Marc Mundell will be race walking the BMO Vancouver Marathon course for the first time in its 46-year history.
“What I am most looking forward to is pulling people along to PBs,” jokes Dunfee. “No one likes being passed by a walker, so I’m hoping in those final 5KM, I can push people out of fear of embarrassment to run quicker than they ever have before!”
Being from Richmond, BC, Dunfee made an easy decision to race walk the province’s premier Marathon alongside thousands of runners from 65 countries. Mundell will be joining Dunfee in a race walk.
Dunfee has represented Canada in numerous international competitions, most notably the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, where he placed fourth and simultaneously set a new Canadian record with a time of 3:41:38. Dunfee also holds Canadian records in the 20KM race walk with 1:20:13 and the 15KM Walk (1:00:06).
Mundell has been competing in race walk events internationally since 2004 and has appeared in both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. At the 2012 London Olympic games, Mundell set a new African record in the 50KM walk with a time of 3:55:32.
PHOTO AND VIDEO UPDATE
Olympic race walker Evan Dunfee walked the Marathon course in an impressive clocking of 3:10:35, beating all but 132 runners. Mundell came in at 3:21:28.
Olympian Evan Dunfee walks a 3:10 at the @BMOVanMarathon pic.twitter.com/WmLCSR8vX6
— CanadianRunning (@CanadianRunning) May 7, 2017
[toggle hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”white” title_closed=”More quotes from Evan” title_open=”More quotes from Evan”]
Q: Before the race, 3:15-3:20 per walking it, you come in at 3:10; did you get a bit excited out there?
E: Yeah, it’s hard – too competitive … I just latched into a group, was chatting away, and realized I was on 3:10 pace and I figured, well, maybe I’ll just stick to it so I got a bit carried away, but it was good. I feel good.”
Q: What was the crowd’s reaction when you passed a bunch of people?
E: It was pretty awesome out there to have so many people cheering, so many people yelling my name and yeah, it was pretty cool out there. I think I gained a lot of respect for race walkers out there today.
Q: How was the big downhill out there from UBC?
E: Coming out from UBC, I was just lucky there are no judges. I broke into a little bit of a jog there down the hill.
Q: Was there any sort of other temptations to just start running?
E: Not too much, you got a lot of people out there to keep me honest. When I was coming down the hill, when I broke into a run, I had about five people going, “Hey! You’re running, you’re lifting!” So yeah, it was pretty easy to stay, I had a lot of judges out there making sure that I was keeping to form.
Q: So in the final few hundred metres, was there anyone that you were duelling with out there, that you wanted to out-sprint?
E: Last 2KM I was helping a guy, trying to pull him through, just cheering him on, trying to get him under whatever we were at. I was able to pull away from him the last couple 100m but it was fun to duel it out with him the last K and push him ahead… I had a lot of people coming up to me after the race and just thank me for pulling them along, so that was great. It was so much fun talking to guys on the course, to have so much support out there. People giving out freezies from their houses and stuff like that, it was really cool to see a community come together and really rally behind this event and pretty much the entire course was just lined with people cheering so it was pretty awesome.
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Pre-race:
Evan Dunfee to walk Vancouver Marathon… and likely beat most runners
Watch out runners, you could be passed by a walker, Olympian Evan Dunfee, on Sunday at the BMO Vancouver Marathon.
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Runners be warned: Evan Dunfee intends to walk Vancouver marathon and he’ll probably beat you
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