Three Selected for World Race Walking Teams Championships

16 February 2022

Three Selected for World Race Walking Teams Championships

Today Athletics Australia named three NSW Central Coast athletes in the Australian team for the World Athletics Race Walking Teams Championships to be held in Muscat, Oman on March 4 and 5.

Making their international debuts in the team are Allanah Pitcher and Carl Gibbons, while Tyler Jones will be returning to the national team. It is a personal achievement for Frank Overton who coaches all three athletes.

Mingara’s Allanah Pitcher, 18, regarded as one of Australia’s best juniors for the last five years, realises her dream after placing third in the trial last week in Adelaide, clocking a tremendous 10km road walk PB of 49:40. Selected in the under-20 10km walk, she has been in tremendous form recently clocking a quick track 10,000m best of 49:17.7, a time which qualifiers her for the World U20 Championships in July. The trials for the track World Juniors will be held in Sydney in late March.

Through COVID, Carl Gibbons (Wyong) has been NSW’s leading men’s race walker and his commitment is rewarded with his national team debut. The Australian U20 Road Walking champion in 2015, Carl, now 25, will wear the green and gold on the international stage. He will be a part of history as Australia’s first ever representative in the new distance of 35km, which will also be the distance for the longer walk at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon in July. In the Adelaide trial over 20km, Carl clocked a nearly one-minute PB time of 1:26.30.

For Tyler Jones, 23, it is a return to the national team after a six-year break and his senior international debut. Tyler who will compete in the 20km Walk in Oman, is competing at his third Race Walking Teams Championships, following appearances in 2014 and 2016 in the junior races. Also as a junior he competed at the World Youth (2015) and World Juniors (2016) Championships. At the trials in Adelaide, Tyler was fourth Australian across the line in a massive PB of 1:24.10, shaving 92 seconds from his previous best. The time put him into the top-20 of Australian all-time.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Allanah Pitcher (courtesy of David Tarbotton)