Evan Dunfee family, local coach proud of race walkers' Olympic spirit
Richmond athlete goes from 4th, to bronze medal and then back to 4th after 50 km race
The family of Evan Dunfee and a track and field coach from his former university say they are proud of the Olympic race walker who ultimately missed out on a medal at the Rio games on Friday.
"I'm really proud of him," said his brother Adam Dunfee from Rio. "It was just cool today to see the whole country get behind him."
Evan Dunfee, the 25-year-old from Richmond B.C., became one of the most talked about Canadian Olympians on Friday after he featured heavily in the men's 50 kilometre race walk.
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He led the contest early in the race, offered a helping hand to a hurting fellow athlete and then was awarded bronze when a Japanese athlete was disqualified after he and Dunfee bumped into one another in the closing kilometres of the race.
"It's been an interesting day to say the least," said Adam Dunfee after the Japanese athlete, Hirooki Arai, was restored to the bronze medal position following a counter-appeal.
"Did the contact between the Japanese athlete and Evan Dunfee impact the outcome of the race and I undoubtedly come back in my own mind, that it did," said UBC head track and field coach Laurier Primeau, who has watched Dunfee's career over the past decade.
Primeau says the Japanese delegation must have presented some new information in their appeal which wasn't considered in the original decision.
Regardless, in a statement Evan Dunfee says after all the drama he is content.
"Contact is part of our event, whether written or unwritten and is quite common, and I don't believe that this was malicious or done with intent," he wrote.
"Even if an appeal to CAS were successful, I would not have been able to receive that medal with a clear conscience, and it isn't something I would have been proud of."
The sportsmanship is no surprise to Primeau, who says Dunfee is a strong spokesman for clean and fair sport.
"He has made a name for himself at least in the track and field circles as an outspoken advocate for that," he said. "He's] participated in investigations that have helped ban some athletes that he has competed against who were using illegal substances."
Meanwhile Dunfee's brother is proud of how he and his teammates have used Richmond's Olympic Oval — a legacy facility from the 2010 Olympic Games — to boost their training and get to the highest level of the sport.
"To people who may snicker at the race walk, these guys walk faster than most people run," said Adam Dunfee. "Evan's] become a sight to see in Richmond. I'm sure many people have seen him walk around. Maybe some of that drama from from the third and fourth place will help to bring more people to the sport of racewalk."
With files from Kamil Karamali.