20.09.2009

Adams and Tallent top five in season final

Australians Luke Adams and Jared Tallent have finished third and fifth respectively in the season-ending IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Saransk, Russia, overnight.

Adams, 32, crossed the line of the 10km course in 39:16 ahead of fellow Berlin world championships representative Tallent, who stopped the clock at 39:28.

Mexican Eder Sanchez, the bronze medallist in the 20km walk at the world titles last month, took out the event - and pocketed the $30,000 winner’s cheque - in a time of 38:57.

Local favourite and reigning world champion over the 20km distance Valeriy Borchin was absent from the field, the Russian sitting out this year’s IAAF series.

Under the revised structure of the race walking competition Adams and Tallent qualified for the season-ending final following their strong results throughout the Race Walking Challenge series, highlighted by their efforts at last month’s world titles.

Twenty-four-year-old Tallent, whose 2009 season featured a third place over 20km in Round 1 of the series in Chihuahua (MEX) in March, fifth place over the same distance in Wuxi (CHN) the following month, and sixth (20km) and seventh (50km) places at the world championships in Berlin, was happy with the result.

“I finished about where I thought I would, I haven’t done as much training as normal over the past few weeks after the world championships and there’s been a lot of travel but today was okay,” the dual Beijing Olympic medallist said.

“I would have liked to finish a bit higher up but I’m happy, all things considered.”

Adams’ result in the Russian city caps an equally impressive season that has seen him finish seventh over 20 kilometres in Chihuahua, sixth over the same distance in both Wuxi and La Coruna (ESP) in Round 6 of the Race Walking Challenge, and 18th (20km) and sixth (50km) at the Berlin world titles last month.

Tallent’s coach, Brent Vallance, said the results capped an impressive season from the two Australian athletes.

“Luke and Jared are both tired after taking on the 20km and 50km walks at the Berlin world championships last month but they raced as hard as they could on the day,” he said.

“It was slower than normal on the clock but all of the international athletes are tired at the end of a long season.”