Thanks to Doug Clement, via www.harryjerome.com

Today Inaki Gomez virtually printed his ticket to the London Olympic Games.

He recorded an A+ Olympic qualifying mark in the IAAF Challenge 20 km Race Walk in Taicang, China with his personal best performance of 1 hour 21:05. His time narrowly misses the Canadian record of 1 hour 21:03 set by Arturo Huerta twelve years ago. Wang Zhen and Chen Ding of China had a furious competition to decide the winner in Taicang with only 3 seconds between them. Wang prevailed in a new Asian record of 1 hour 17:36.

Full results are available here.

Inaki and his Canadian team mate Evan Dunfee have spent the winter training in Australia preparing to attack the qualifying standards in the 20 km race walk to represent Canada at the London Olympics. Inaki has graduated from UBC, while Evan, the NAIA 5 km race walk record holder, has taken a year off school to prepare for the Olympics and will have one year remaining when he returns.

They gave favourable indications in one of their preparatory races over the short 5 km distance in February. Inaki and Evan recorded personal bests of 18:45.64 and 19:08.87. In fact Inaki did improve his personal best in China by over a minute from 1 hour 22:06. Evan clearly was off form, as his time in Taicang was 1 hour 26:20 compared to his personal best of 1 hour 23:45 set in Naumburg, Germany last season. Also, his season's best for the 20 km is 1:25:17, set in Hobart, Australia, in 38 degree Celsius conditions. Predictions from his 5km time in February would equal the Canadian Olympic A qualifying mark of 1 hour 22:30. He will surely seek another opportunity to make the required mark needed to join his training partner in London.

In 2011 at the UBC Athletics Big Block Awards, Inaki Gomez received the “Bus” Philips Award for Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year

At the NAIA TF Championships, he is a three-time gold medalist. Evan Dunfee has one gold medal, from 2011, where he set the NAIA Championships record. He has one year of eligibility remaining.

You can follow Inaki on Twitter at @InakiGomezG, and Evan at @EvanDunfee