USA Track & Field has named a team of 16 athletes set to compete at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24. The roster of walkers, highlighted by Tokyo Olympians Nick Christie, Miranda Melville, and Robyn Stevens, will compete in the 20 km, 10 km (U20), and Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay in Antalya, Turkey on April 21. Stephanie Casey, a veteran walker who competed at Budapest and Oregon and placed third at the US Race Walk Team Trials, will lead the women’s 20 km quartet. Lydia McGranahan, Ruby Ray, and Janelle Branch, who finished fourth, fifth, and sixth to Casey in March, will join her at the distance in Antalya. 2018 NACAC bronze medalist and US Race Walk Team Trials runner up John Cody Risch will headline the American men in the 20 km. Jason Cherng, who competed for Taiwan until March of 2022 and transferred allegiance in April of 2022, will represent Team USA for the first time in Antalya. Juan Axel Montanez and Joel Pfahler, the sixth and seventh-place finishers from the US Race Walk Team Trials, will round out the foursome. No strangers to international competition, Heather Durrant and Angelica Harris will toe the line for the U20 10 km. 19-year-old Durrant, a Pan Am U20 silver medalist at the distance, will look to add a world medal to her collection. Harris, who competed at the World Athletics U20 Championships and World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships, is making her third international appearance at 18. The new marathon race walk mixed relay will serve as the qualifying event for the marathon race walk mixed relay at the Paris Olympic Games, with the first 22 teams in Antalya earning automatic qualification for the Games. Veterans Robyn Stevens, Nick Christie, and Miranda Melville will be joined by Jordan Crawford, Celina Lepe, and Emmanuel Corvera.
More information about the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships, including a schedule of events, can be found here.