Canadian Ben Thorne finishes fourth in Commonwealth Games 20-kilometre race walk

GOLD COAST, Australia — Olympic bronze medallist Dane Bird-Smith of Australia used a late surge to win gold in the men’s 20-kilometre race walk Saturday, the opening event of the track and field program at the Commonwealth Games.

Canadian Ben Thorne led after 12 kilometres and was in the top three for much of the race but lost ground and finished fourth, 75 seconds behind Bird-Smith. The Australian, whose father was also an Olympic race-walker, won in one minute 19.34 seconds, erasing the games record of 1:22:18.

England’s Tom Bosworth, disqualified while leading at last year’s world championships in London, won silver four seconds back in a personal best 1:19:38, ahead of Kenyan bronze medallist Samuel Gathimba in 1:19:51. Thorne finished in a season-best 1:20:49.

Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., whose signature race is the 50 kilometres which is not run here, was eighth in a season-best 1:23:26.

Thorne came into the Gold Coast race with a personal best of 1:19:55. The 25-year-old from Kitimat, B.C., was 51st at last year’s world championships in 1:26:56 and 27th at the Rio Olympics in 1:22:28.

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Thorne earned bronze over the distance at the 2015 world championships in Beijing where he became the first Canadian to win  a world championship race walk medal. He also became the first Canadian to break the 80-minute barrier, setting a then-national record of 1:19:57.

Saturday’s race started at 7 a.m. local time in a bid to minimize the 20-degree-plus Celsius heat.

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected version of an earlier story. Evan Dunfee finished eighth, not ninth.