Declan Tingay continues to impress at World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships

Declan Tingay narrowly missed a medal after a late time penalty at the 2022 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.

The Australian team consisting of Tokyo Olympian Declan Tingay along with Kyle Swan, Rhydian Cowley, Will Thompson and Tyler Jones (Frank Overton), were within a whisker of a podium finish, but a two-minute penalty for Tingay in the final minutes of the race saw the team ultimately finish in fourth place. 

At the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships, a nation’s first three finishers score for the team, with the results decided by the aggregate of placings recorded by each. The team with the lowest score is declared the winner.

Even with the two-minute penalty after a receiving a third red card for loss of contact with the ground, Tingay posted the strongest result of all the Australians, finishing in 10th place. Before receiving the penalty, he was sitting in a comfortable third position, and had the finish line in site before being tapped on the shoulders by the judges.

Athletics Australia Event Group Lead for Race Walking, Brent Vallance said,” “We’ve been in this position before with our younger athletes, and generally the first time they are genuinely competitive in an international team, there is some level of greater scrutiny that they aren’t used to, and Declan’s position today is no different to say Nathan Deakes in his early days, Jane Saville early in her career and even Jared Tallent. We don’t want to say it’s a right of passage, but it isn’t uncommon.

“Declan has been a standout all summer, and was a standout junior for a number of years. He went under 1:21 to meet the qualifying standard for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon at the Australian Championships last month, and that puts him in good company with some of our best.