Women will compete at 20km and 35km at the Pan American Race Walking Championships in Ecuador ©Getty Images

Twenty-year-old home athlete Glenda Morejón will be a focus of attention when she races in the women’s 20 kilometres event at the Pan American Race Walking Cup that starts tomorrow at Guayaquil in Ecuador.

Morejón, a former world under-18 champion who has battled against poor facilities to earn a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, will face a field that includes Brazilian Erika Rocha de Sena, fourth in the London World Championships four years ago.

The men's 50km event has 17 registered entrants including the Mexican José Leyver, who already has the Olympic qualifying mark in the 20km.

The women's 35km race, the distance espoused by World Athletics following the International Olympic Committee’s decision to exclude the 50km race walk from the Paris 2024 Olympics, will be run for the first time in a continental event.

Colombia’s 2017 world champion Eider Arévalo is in the field for the men's 20km event at the Pan American Race Walking Cup in Ecuador ©Getty Images
Colombia’s 2017 world champion Eider Arévalo is in the field for the men's 20km event at the Pan American Race Walking Cup in Ecuador ©Getty Images

The men's 20km will involve the 2017 world champion, Colombia’s Eider Arévalo, as well as the Brazilian Caio Bonfim and Olympic qualifiers Daniel Pintado from Ecuador and José Ortiz and Bernardo Barrondo from Guatemala.

Athletes from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela make up the 107 registered starters.

Coronavirus concerns prompted Canada to withdraw its three-man team from the event on April 28.

The host city has been one of the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 in Ecuador.

A state of emergency was declared at the end of April with 16 of the country’s 24 provinces locked down in the face of new virus variants.

This biennial event was last held in Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico in 2019.