Allanah Pitcher wins silver at the World Race Walking Team Championship

Published Sun 06 Mar 2022

6 March 2022

Allanah Pitcher wins silver at the World Race Walking Team Championship

Allanah Pitcher’s historic teams silver medal was the highlight for NSW at the 2022 World Race Walking Team Championships held in Oman over the weekend.

NSW had three representatives at the championships with training partners Tyler Jones and Carl Gibbons joining teenager Allanah Pitcher. Carl and Allanah were making their Australian team debut, while for Tyler it was his first appearance in a senior national team.

Lining up with 36 athletes from over 20 countries in the under-20 women’s 10km walk, Allanah was ranked 24th, but she performed way above that level.

Through the first kilometres she was with the lead pack, but as the pace quickened, she did too, but still lost a few seconds to the leaders. She was in 14th place after the third kilometre, but over the next 4kms, gradually moved up to eighth. She slipped to nineth at 9km, but her last kilometre was brilliant. As most athletes were feeling the heat and fatigue from the early pace, she was wearing them down and flying home. Her final kilometre split of 5:02 was only bettered by the medallists. She passed two Spanish athletes who would eventually finish eighth and 12th (and the team third) as Alannah zoomed up to a magnificent seventh clocking 49:51, just 11 seconds from her PB in a race where only one athlete set a personal best due to the heat and humidity.

But more exciting was the news that with her teammate Olivia Sandery (from SA), they had won silver in the team event. Olivia had clocked 49:01 to place fifth. The third member of the Australian team Alana Peart was brilliant too placing 13th. The trio shattered the Australian records at the event. After two team bronze medals, the silver was the highest ever team result for Australia. Australia have never had two in the top-10 or three in the top-15 previously.

Prior to the race Alanah felt they had a hope of a team medal.

“It’s so crazy. I knew we had a good chance but at the end of the day, it’s the first international competition for all of us and we were just out here to have fun and do our best, so the medal is a great cherry on top,” Alanah told Athletics Australia.

In the men’s 35km Carl Gibbons made an historic Australian debut at the distance, never previously held at world level. On the start line there were 65 athletes from 29 countries. Carl started conservatively, 51st after one kilometre. Mid-race he sat around 40th, but over the later stages made tremendous progress recording one of his fastest splits at the 32lm mark. He hit the finish line in 29th clocking 2:46.35 – an inaugural Oceania and Australian record.

The was action aplenty for Tyler Jones and Australia in the open men’s 20km event. WA’s Declan Tingay was in fourth place at the 19km mark, but sustained a technical foul costing him two minutes in the penalty zone, he eventually placed tenth. Tyler was sitting nicely around 35th place through the middle of the race, moving up to 30th at 12km, but unfortunately before the 14km was disqualified.