USATF National 35K Race Walk Championships

What: Open races at 20K, 10K, and 5K for U.S. and international men and women and masters. Youth races at 5k and 3k.

When: 7:30 a.m. Sunday

Where: Santee, 1K course at Riverview Parkway and Town Center Parkway adjacent to Trolley Square shopping center. This is the 12th straight year in Santee and 15th in 17 years for the event, either hosting the Olympic Trials or National Championships.

What’s new: After the introduction of the marathon mixed relay a year ago, it’s back to the old with the 35K (21.75-mile) individual races that were the marquee event for men and women the previous two years. This is in keeping with key international events for this year. The marathon mixed relay had its Olympic debut last year.

Happy couples: El Cajon’s Nick Christie and Chula Vista’s Miranda Melville combined to win last year’s marathon mixed relay, and as of New Year’s Eve, they are also engaged. With the return of the 35K race here this year, Christie and Melville are technically two-time defending champions in the event. Spring Valley’s Natos Correa and his wife, Celina Lepe, are vying in the 10K event.

Olympic outlook: No American race walkers qualified for the 2024 Paris Games for the first time in Olympic history. Still, there are former Olympians in this field: Christie vied in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, and Melville competed in the 2016 Rio de Janerio Games.

Records: U.S. records: Christie, men, 2:36:47, 2024; and Robyn Stevens, women, 2:49:29, 2023. Course records: Christie, men, 2:44:16, 2023; and Melville, women, 2:57:21, 2023.

International aspect: Defending men’s 20K champion Brando Seurat Zepeda is due back. Set for his first appearance here in the 35K is Sweden’s Perseus Karltrom; he is the son of Siv Gustavsson, a women’s trailblazer in the sport.

Further at stake: Races also have a bearing on qualifying for this year’s Pan Am Race Walk Cup in Ecuador (April 19 to 21) and World Athletes Track & Field Championships in Tokyo (Sept. 13 to 21).

Prize money: The top three men and women will earn $8,000, $6,000, and $4,000 respectively.

GLAE THIEN