Canadians set back on their heels

Evan Dunfee saw Friday’s 20-kilometre Olympic race walk as more of a stroll, a warm-up for next week’s vomit-inducing 50-kilometre race.

In what he hopes is a sign of a medal on the horizon, Dunfee heel-toed his way across the finish line in 10th place. He now has a week to rest up his legs for the main event that will once again run adjacent to the beach on the Pontal Peninsula.

“I think this is a perfect example of why I’m a 50K walker,” Dunfee said Friday at the finish line.

The Richmond, B.C., race walker simply couldn’t keep up the front-running pack that reached speeds of 17 kilometres an hour.

“As soon as they upped the ante and started dropping, I thought, ‘Ugh, I’ve got no fourth gear,” said Dunfee, who stopped the clock at one minute 20.49 seconds.

Inaki Gomez has a fourth gear. He just couldn’t access it Friday despite of sitting in third place with the podium just two kilometres away.

“My legs just went,” the 28-year-old Vancouverite said. “You try, you try. But some days your body just does not give it.”

China’s Wang Zhen won gold in 1:19.14. His countryman Cai Zelin seized silver and Australia’s Dane BirdSmith claimed bronze.