Tallent rises to the top

Ballarat walker Jared Tallent smashed his personal best by more than 10 minutes to confirm his nomination for the Australian Olympic team with a dominant display in the Telstra Australian 50km Walk Championships at Albert Park this morning.

The 23 year-old produced the third fastest time ever by an Australian to stop the clock at 3 hours 44 minutes and 45 seconds, well inside his previous best of 3:55.08 and 15 minutes under the Olympic A-qualifying time of 4 hours. 

Sydney 20-year-old Adam Rutter received an early 21st birthday present, easily going under the A-qualifying time, recording 3:52.49 to finish second in his debut attempt at the gruelling 50km distance.

Olympic Games 20km nominee Luke Adams carved more than 10 minutes off his lifetime best to finish third in 3:53.19 in a high quality race where the first five walkers finished inside the 4-hour standard required for Olympic Games consideration.

Veteran Duane Cousins was fourth (3:55.57) with his World Championships teammate Chris Erickson fifth (3:59.02).

Winning the trial in an A-qualifier will earn Tallent automatic nomination when the Athletics Australia selectors meet tomorrow, whilst Rutter, who will celebrate his 21st birthday on Christmas eve, is expected to receive the remaining spot in what would be the ideal holiday season gift.

World champion Nathan Deakes has been pre-nominated for 50km selection and was exempted from participating in the trial.

The winning time is the 11th fastest in the world this year and is a pointer to Tallent’s potential to finish inside the top 10 in Beijing.  Only world record holder Deakes (3:35.37) and world cup winner Simon Baker (3:43.13) have gone faster on the Australian all-time list.

Tallent and Rutter are both coached at the Australian Institute of Sport by former Australian representative Brent Vallance and the training partners are confident they can join with Deakes to form a formidable trio in Beijing.

Tallent, the bronze medallist over 20km at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, missed selection for the 50km event in Osaka and was disqualified in the 20km when ensconced in the top six with 5km remaining.

“I was confident going into the race today and wanted to win by a long way to make up for the disappointment of not being picked for the 50k in Osaka,” he said.

“After what happened in Osaka, I have been working on my technique a lot and it was really solid today.  I didn’t get a report and I felt great apart from the last couple of laps (of the 2km circuit).”

Rutter, an Australian representative at World Youth, World Junior and World Walk Cup, only made the decision to focus on the long walk in May.

“I’ve only recently upped the volume in training, so this is a great result. I played it conservatively for the first 30k or so and then it started to feel good. I had a really strong 5k between 40 and 45 and just tried to hang on to the finish,” Rutter said.

Adams, who has already secured nomination in the 20km in Beijing after finishing seventh at the world titles in Osaka, made a last minute decision to race to keep his Beijing 50km options open. Despite finishing third, he was satisfied with the result.

“I didn’t expect to finish. It was a bit of a gamble to race, and I didn’t want to knock myself around but I felt good.

“Well done to those guys (Tallent and Rutter) and I’m happy to focus on the 20 at the Games,” Adams said.

Tallent, Rutter and Adams will take a short break to recover before setting their sights on the Australian 20km Championships and Olympic trial in Melbourne in February.