Evan Dunfee, Ethan Katzberg set Canadian records on Day 1 of athletics worlds

Evan Dunfee set a Canadian record to open his sixth World Athletics Championships and teammate Ethan Katzberg, making his debut at the event, followed suit about one hour later Saturday in Budapest, Hungary.

Following a two-hour delay due to thunderstorms, Dunfee covered the men's 20-kilometre race walk in one hour 18 minutes three seconds for fourth place. Inaki Gomez held the previous national mark of 1:19:20 since 2016.

Dunfee, a 32-year-old from Richmond, B.C., finished 16 seconds shy of tying Caio Bonfim for a bronze medal, with the Brazilian achieving a national mark of 1:17:47.

"[I] proved [to] myself that I could be a 20K walker still," Dunfee told The Canadian Press. "It's funny how the brain works, I spent 10 years trying to break an hour 20 [minutes] and I crossed the finish line and I'm like "Ahh, damn, I didn't break an hour 18 [minutes].' Always striving for more.

"I know fourth place is supposed to be that bittersweet position where you're just off the podium but honestly, I couldn't be happier with this. Long time coming."

WATCH | CBC Sports' Rob Pizzo breaks down Day 1 of athletics worlds: 

World Athletics Championships Day 1 Recap | Athletics North

1 year ago

Duration 4:10

Host Rob Pizzo breaks down day one of the World Athletics Championships.

Álvaro Martín of Spain won the race in a season world-leading 1:17:32, followed by Perseus Karlström in a Swedish record time of 1:17:39.

Dunfee entered Saturday ranked 22nd in the world in the event. His previous best finish at worlds over 20 km was a 12th-place finish (1:21:48) in 2015 in Beijing. He won bronze in the 50 km race in Doha, Qatar in 2019 and was sixth last year in Eugene, Ore., clocking 2:25:02.

A three-time Canadian champion in the 20 km race, Dunfee earned Olympic bronze two years ago in the 50 km event in Sapporo, Japan. On Thursday in Budapest, he's scheduled to compete in the men's 35 km race walk final.

Katzberg, 21, wasted no time setting the tone in men's hammer throw with a first attempt of 81.18 metres, easily topping the 77.00 requirement to automatically qualify for Sunday's final at 11:49 a.m. ET.

Watch Athletics North every day during the World Athletics Championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Sports YouTube Channel for a rundown of the day's top stories and events. Rob Pizzo will be joined by our track and field analysts, including Morgan Campbell, to bring you the latest storylines.

The Nanaimo, B.C., native, fresh off a personal best (78.73) and victory at the Canadian championships on July 29, turned in the second-furthest throw of 2023 behind Poland's Wojciech Nowicki (81.92) who went 78.04 in Katzberg's group Saturday to qualify third for the final.

Katzberg has won six times in 12 events this season and placed no worse than third.

The six-foot-six, 235-pound athlete has also thrown over 77 metres six times after averaging 70-72 metres most of last season.

WATCH | Katzberg sets Canadian record in Budapest:

Ethan Katzberg sets national record, qualifies 1st for hammer throw final

1 year ago

Duration 0:42

Nanaimo, B.C., native Ethan Katzberg sets a men's Canadian hammer throw record of 81.18 metres and qualifies in first place for Sunday's final at the World Athletics Championships.

Katzberg raised eyebrows last August with a silver medal performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

Victoria's Adam Keenan (74.56) secured the 12th and final berth for the world final by 42 centimetres over fellow Canadian Rowan Hamilton of Chilliwack, B.C. (74.14).

WATCH | Full coverage of Saturday's morning session from Hungary: 

World Athletics Championships Budapest: Day 1 morning session

1 year ago

Duration 5:38:47

Catch the best track and field athletes in the world compete from Budapest, Hungary.

Elsewhere Saturday, Jean-Simon Desgagnés of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., was sixth in qualifying for the men's 3,000-metre steeplechase, scheduled for Tuesday at 3:42 p.m. ET.

The 25-year-old climbed seven positions on the final lap to finish in 8:20.04, second to Ethiopia's Getnet Wale (8:19.99) in the first of three heats.

Record holder Matt Hughes (8:11.64), Graeme Fell (8:12.58) and John Gay (8:16.99) are the only Canadian men to run the 3,000 steeple faster than Desgagnés.

On July 27, Desgagnés stopped the clock in 8:24.47 for his first Canadian steeple title at the senior level.

He made his worlds debut last July and represented Canada at the fourth NACAC Championships a month later, earning a bronze medal in Freeport, Bahamas.

Philibert-Thiboutot advances to 1,500m semis

Later Saturday, Quebec City's Charles Philibert-Thiboutot earned a spot in the men's 1,500 semifinal by grabbing the sixth and final spot in the first of four heats.

Positioned in the middle of the pack for the second half of the race, he made a move on the inside to the top six with just under two laps remaining. Looking strong, Philibert-Thiboutot sat seventh at the bell lap with 400 metres to the finish, stayed with the front group on the straightaway and crossed the line in three minutes 34.60 seconds.

Germany's Amos Bartelsmeyer was 84-100ths of a second behind the Canadian in seventh.

Vancouver's Kieran Lumb was eighth in the third heat (3:36.66) and won't race in Sunday's semis at 11:30 a.m. ET. The final is slated for Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.

The men's 100 heats begin at 1:43 p.m, with Fred Kerley of the United States favoured to become the first man since Bolt to repeat as world champion.

The hulking 28-year-old, who took silver at the Olympics in 2021, won 11 consecutive 100 races before South Africa's Akani Simbine beat him in a photo finish at a Diamond League meet in Poland last month.

Other Canadian results on Saturday:

• Lucia Stafford (Toronto) — women's 1,500 (4:05.21, 28th of 55 finishers). Did not qualify for semifinals
• Simone Plourde (Montreal) — women's 1,500 (4:07.04, 40th); Kate Current (Cobourg, Ont.) — (4:07.23, four-second PB, 41st)
• Mark Bujnowski (Mount Brydges, Ont.) — 18.84 metres in men's shot put (did not qualify for final)

WATCH | Phylicia George expects 'something special' from Canada's athletes: 

Canadians to watch at the 2023 World Athletics Championships | Athletics North

1 year ago

Duration 5:51

Athletics Canada is sending 50 athletes to the 2023 Worlds Athletics Championships starting August 19th in Budapest, Hungary. Here we preview the Canadian contingent with someone whose done it all before; 3-time multi-sport Olympian Phylicia George.

Seville steals spotlight in men's 100m heats

Jamaican Oblique Seville put the Americans on warning they will have their work cut out for another world 100-metre sweep when he posted the fastest time of Round 1 Saturday with an impressive 9.86-second run.

Jamaica has not triumphed in the event since the last of Usain Bolt's gold medals in 2015, with the United States winning the three since, including a podium sweep last year.

Seville's time matched his personal best, was the third-fastest in the world this year and brought him home ahead of defending champion and event favourite Fred Kerley.

The duo had to deal with a long delay before their heat, which then featured two false starts, and Kerley barely got out of second gear to come home in 9.99, watching the action on the big screen as he eased down.

American Noah Lyles won his heat in 9.95 while easing up and running in Lane 9. Former champion Christian Coleman also advanced safely but surprise U.S. champion Cravont Charleston went out as he clocked 10.18 to finish fifth in his heat.

• Muscular Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, second in the world rankings, who served a doping ban in 2017, also looked strong coming in just behind him in 9.97.
• World leader Zharnel Hughes of Britain, who was disqualified for a false start in the Tokyo Olympic final, won his heat in 10 seconds flat.
• Italian Marcell Jacobs, who has barely raced since his shock Tokyo Olympic victory, looked a touch heavy but came through for his best time of the year, 10.15, to scrape through in third place in his heat.

The semifinals are scheduled for Sunday at 10:35 a.m. ET, followed by the final at 1:10 p.m.

In other events:

• Sifan Hassan stumbled and fell in the stretch of the 10,000 metres, ruining her chance to match the three medals she captured two years ago at the Olympics. Hassan, who runs for the Netherlands, was sprinting for the finish line, trying to hold off eventual winner Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia. With Tsegay closing in at about the 50-metre mark, Hassan stumbled and fell, her hands skidding along the track. Tsegay finished in 31 minutes 27.18 seconds to lead an Ethiopian sweep.

• The United States won a dramatic gold with a world record in the mixed 4x400 relay as Femke Bol fell five metres from the line just as it looked as if she was going to bring the Netherlands home for gold. The Dutch ran a brilliant race but U.S. anchor Alexis Holmes refused to let Bol escape and was within inches of her before Bol crashed to the track, dropping the baton. The winning time of 3:08.80 broke the Americans' own world record set in the first running of the event in 2019.

• Remarkable American Ryan Crouser continued his red-hot streak when he twice broke his own championship record and signed off with a huge 23.51 metres to win world championship shot put gold for the second time in a row. The double Olympic champion smashed his own world record in May with 23.56 and cranked out four efforts beyond 22.00 on Saturday, the enormous last one — the second-best throw in history — coming with the gold already secure.

WATCH | U.S. sets world record in mixed 4x400m relay: 

United States sets world record in 4x400m mixed relay at athletics worlds

1 year ago

Duration 8:50

Americans Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong, Matthew Boling and Alexis Homes win the gold medal in the 4x400 metres mixed relay final with a world record time of 3:08.80 at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.