Canada's Evan Dunfee sets world record in 35km race walk

Canada's Evan Dunfee set a world record in the men's 35-kilometre event at the World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting in Dudince, Slovakia.

The 34-year-old from Richmond, B.C., clocked a time of two hours 21 minutes 40 seconds on Saturday in a dominant performance at the annual Dudinska 50 competition, breaking the previous mark by seven seconds.

Dunfee led from start to finish, lapping most of the field in the 50-man race. He knocked more than three minutes off his previous best time.

He built a 30-second lead on his closest competitors by the 5K mark and held a world-record pace of four-minute kilometres.

"I was well under pace, but then lost a little time over the last seven kilometres," Dunfee told World Athletics. "I [then] got a little stressed out, but it was a dream come true.

"I'm so proud to be on that winners plaque here at Dudince."

German runner-up Christopher Linke finished three minutes behind the Canadian. Mexico's Jose Doctor was third in 2:24:41.

Japan's Kawano Masatora had held the record since last October from a Bronze meeting in Takahata, Japan.

It's the second record in as many months for Dunfee, who also smashed the North American mark in the men's 20km on Feb. 16 in Adelaide, Australia (1:17:39).

The three-time Olympian won Canada's first-ever Olympic medal in the 50km event with bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

That 50K is no longer part of the Olympic Games, which has men's and women's 20K races and a mixed relay.

Dunfee was fifth in the men's 20K at last summer's Paris Olympics.