PARIS — On a hot morning in the French capital, Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee strode to fifth in the men’s 20km race walk.

Dunfee, who took bronze in the 50km event at the 2020 Tokyo Games, reinvented himself as a 20km athlete over the last three years after his preferred longer event was removed from the Olympic program.

He had a strong start and stayed with the lead pack through 14 laps of the one-kilometre course around the base of the Eiffel Tower, but could not match the surge by Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, who went on to finish second behind Equador’s Brian Daniel Pintado. Dunfee was in fifth, 11 seconds back of the leader at the bell lap, and wasn’t able to close the gap.