Canadian team stalwart Evan Dunfee told local media on Thursday he was hoping to create a race walk to remember at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Mission accomplished.
The 34-year-old Dunfee, of Richmond, B.C. — competing in his seventh world championships — struck gold Friday in the men’s 35-kilometre race walk, reeling in the top five walkers over the final eight kilometres.
Dunfee finished the race in two hours, 28 minutes and 22 seconds, which was 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Caio Bonfim
Evan Dunfee captured gold in the 35km race walk, while Andre De Grasse advanced to the 100m semifinal on a busy opening day at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. CBC Sports’ Trackside team breaks down all the key performances, including strong showings from Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
“My coach and I have been together since I was 10 years old and then we set down and set goals to become world champions and to set the world record. We managed to do both this year and it really is a dream come true,” Dunfee said after the race. “I am turning 35 this year but I just feel like I am getting better and better. I was just patient today. I was really struggling and I was thinking that maybe the gold was not going to happen today.
“The last two kilometres felt like the hardest ones I have ever done. I had to channel all my strength for all the people back home, the ones who supported me. I was just thinking, ‘one more step’ and it paid off.”
Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., wins the men’s 35-kilometre race walk final with a time of 2:28.22 at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Dunfee earned bronze in the 50K walk at the world championships in 2019 and at the Olympics in Tokyo, Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the event. He later claimed gold in the 10K walk at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Dunfee placed fifth in the 20K walk, now the only distance contested at the Olympics, at the Paris Games last year.
Olivia Lundman of Nanaimo, B.C., failed to finish the women’s 35-kilometre race walk. The 22-year-old was disqualified at the eight-kilometre mark. Maria Perez of Spain won in 2:29:45
Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., discusses winning the men’s 35-kilometre race walk world title.
American stars shine, Canadians advance in 100m
America’s two big-name sprinters, Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles, both walked off the track Saturday with reason to think they might have found what’s been missing over a less-than-perfect 2025.
Both defending world champions won their preliminary heats in the 100 meters. Those results should surprise nobody but they still brought bursts of joy — both from the runners and from the loud sellout crowd that was absent four years ago, when Japan National Stadium was the centrepiece of a COVID-tainted Olympics.
“Last one, I could hear my own thoughts echoing off the wall,” Lyles said of the Tokyo Games. “So, completely different.”
Lyles won his heat in 9.95 seconds — the same time posted by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, who only ran hard for about the first 60 meters of his race.
While Eliezer Adjibi ran a time of 10.19 and Andre De Grasse clocked 10.16, Kelowna’s Jerome Blake hit 10.05 to best his Canadian teammates and make the World Athletics Championships 100-metre semifinals.
Lyles beat Thompson by .005 seconds at the Paris Olympics last year, and though the American comes in as an underdog this time, he feels he unlocked something in practice over the last week.
“I was tightening my muscles and every time I tighten my muscles, my stride get shorter, and that’s why I wasn’t getting the results I wanted,” said Lyles, who still hasn’t cracked 9.9 this year.
All three Canadian men in the heats – Jerome Blake (10.05), Andre De Grasse (10.16), and Eliezer Adjibi (10.19) – advanced to the semifinals.
Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., put up a time of 10.16, finishing second in his heat, to notch a spot in the semis at the World Athletics Championships.
Richardson has been in even rougher shape, slowed by an injury for most of the year.
She was slow out of the starting blocks in this one — a typical problem of hers — but when she gets things into top gear, still elite. Her winning time of 11.03 seconds was her best of the year — not great by any means, but trending upward.
“I know that this year is not what I ideally saw as being my golden year,” she said. “But when I think of `golden’ now, I think of buried treasure and sometimes you’ve got to dig through the dirt to get to the gold.”
The Canadian sprinter finished his heat in second place, with a time of 10.19, to make it to the 100-metre semifinals.
The semifinals and finals for both 100s are set for Sunday, with all the top contenders — including U.S. champ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Olympic champ Julien Alfred, Lyles’ frenemy Kenny Bednarek and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville — still in the mix.
Canada’s Audrey Leduc was top three in her heat (11.26) to advance, however teammate Sade McCreath did not, clocking a time of 11.41.
Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que., ran to a time of 11.26 to earn herself a spot in the women’s 100-metre semifinals at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
Also advancing to the final — this one for long jump — was Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, who only needed one jump to move through. She finished sixth here four years ago in front of empty seats. On this trip, she noticed that when she waved to the fans, they didn’t hoot and holler, but simply waved back.
“It’s like silent applause,” she said. “The fans are amazing.”
Chebet adds another title in women’s 10,000
There might not have been a bigger favorite in a race over the entire meet than Beatrice Chebet in the women’s 10,000.
The world-record holder and Olympic champion came through, as expected, bursting past defending champion Gudaf Tsegay with about a half-lap left, then fending off a game challenge from Italy’s Nadia Battocletti down the stretch.
Chebet’s time of 30 minutes, 37.61 seconds was pedestrian by her standards, but the gold medal will look just as good. Last year, she became the first woman to crack 29 minutes over the 25-lap race.
There’s a possibility of a tantalizing showdown in the 5,000 next weekend between Chebet and Faith Kipyegon, the 1,500-meter world-record holder who advanced easily through her 1,500 heat.
Crouser seals a shot put 3-peat
Ryan Crouser completed an incredible world championship shot put hat-trick to match his three Olympic golds when, having not thrown once all season before the morning heats, the American somehow found a winning 22.34m effort to take gold.
It was an extraordinary performance by the 32-year-old, who was sidelined by an elbow injury but gave a hint that he was close to his best with a 21.37-meter effort in morning qualifying.
He improved to 21.41 with his first final effort, threw 21.99 with his second and then a 22.34 with his fifth to seal a 12th men’s gold in the last 16 world championships for the U.S.
Americans take 4x400m gold
The United States convincingly won the 4x400m mixed relay for the third time in the event’s four world championship outings on Saturday, gaining some measure of revenge on the Netherlands, who beat them in last year’s Olympics.
The popular event was first run in 2019 when the U.S. won and they dramatically triumphed again in 2023 after managing only bronze on home soil in Eugene in 2022.
It was never in doubt on Saturday, however, as they came home well clear in an equal championship record of 3:08.80.
Femke Bol, who famously fell when meters from the line to hand the U.S. the gold in the last worlds, delivered another outstanding anchor leg to give the Dutch the silver in 3:09.96.
Fast-finishing Belgium took bronze in 3:10.61, their first global medal in the event.
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