World Championships selections: Allanah Pitcher’s transition complete

9 June 2023

World Championships selections: Allanah Pitcher’s transition complete

At 19, talented Central Coast race walker Allanah Pitcher has confirmed her transition from junior to senior international with her selection in the Australian team for the 2023 World Championships. Allanah has been selected in the 35km walk for the championships to be held in July/August in Budapest.

Her speedy graduation into the National senior team was setup by her brilliant 35km walk in April where she broke the Australian record in Japan. For a junior, who had only contested a few 20km events, the move to 35km earlier this year was a leap of faith.

“It was a lot of fun surprisingly. I really liked the longer distance and slightly easier pace of sustained walking. I only decided to race the 35km the week before. The longest I had walked was 30km in training. I thought I had nothing to lose.”

How did she approach the new distance?

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do going into it. Do I play it safe and try and qualify (for the world championships) via points or go for the qualifier? It was good conditions and a really good track and good opposition. So, I decided to use the atmosphere to push me and hang onto the pace.

“I felt really comfortable on target pace, so I thought I’d do this as long as I can. I went through 20k feeling really good and thought ‘there is only 15k to go, so let’s try and hold this’. Each ‘k’ went past I thought ‘I’m stilling doing it’ then got to a point where I thought ‘this is going to happen.”

She clocked 2:50.23, taking three minutes off the National record and was 67 seconds under the automatic qualifying standard for the 2023 World Championships. She is almost certainly on her way to Budapest for her senior debut later in the year.

With her selection ‘on the cards’ for a number of weeks, at the recent walks the medical engineering student at Syd Uni could hardly contain her excitement when speaking about the leadup plans, which include a stint of altitude training at St Moritz before they add the final touches to preparations at the AIS training based in Varese in Italy.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Allanah Pitcher at the 2022 World Race Walking Teams Championships