Jared Tallent wins silver medal in gruelling men’s 50km walk in Rio

FIRST he was denied by a drug cheat, this time it was a fast-finishing Slovakian who has cruelled Jared Tallent’s dream of crossing the line first at an Olympic Games.

SILVER wasn’t what he wanted but Jared Tallent got his other wish in Rio — a clean podium.

The Australian team captain has campaigned strongly against cheats after being robbed of his moment in London four years ago by Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin who was later belatedly stripped of the title for a doping offence.

Tallent, who didn’t receive his Olympic gold medal until June this year, said he was proud to stand on the medal dais alongside gold medallist Matej Toth and Hirooki Arai, who took bronze.

“We have a clean podium again and I am proud to stand up there with those other blokes,” he said.

“It’s very different to London, there are no suspicions this time around.

“It was a good group and I didn’t have to worry about any cheats in the race who were going to spoil the party for all the clean athletes.

“Matej is a really good guy and I know him well, he trains really hard and if anyone was going to beat me I’m happy that he’s the one who beat me. He is such a good guy, one of the nicest guys in the sport.”

Toth, who won Slovakia’s first Olympic gold medal other than in canoe slalom, backed up Tallent’s sentiments.

Jared Tallent wins silver, and collapses after the men's 50km walk. Picture: Alex Coppel

Jared Tallent celebrates his silver medal winning effort in the men’s 50km walk. Picture: Alex Coppel

“This race was so clean,” he said. “I hope we will be saying after this competition, you can tell this was a clean competition without cheaters.”

Tallent looked to have his second Olympic gold medal in hand when he surged clear at the 40km mark but with just over 2km the fairytale script took on a new ending.

Toth came out of the chasing pack and gobbled up Tallent who at one stage had got out to a 20-second advantage.

Toth kept going over the final kilometre and crossed the line 18 seconds ahead of the Australian team captain.

Matej Toth leads Jared Tallent in the 50km and goes on to take the gold medal.

Victorian Chris Erickson, who produced a career best performance to finish ninth, said the whole dynamic of the event was different with no Russians competing.

“It changes the race dynamic completely,” he said. “They’ve skewed the results for us for so long now.

“It’s when you’d have three of them charge to the front and off they’d go, everyone else was playing catch-up and more or less scratching their heads.

“It’s changed the whole dynamic and has opened it up for a lot of other people like myself.

“Hopefully they (the Russians) come back into competition at some stage, but with a clean house.”

World record holder Yohann Diniz had gone like Vo Rogue out of the gates and quickly opened up a significant lead.

Best Olympic moments captured by our photographers in Rio

VIEW GALLERY

At one stage he was more than a minute ahead before he stopped suddenly as his body seized up.

The chasing pack, which included Tallent, caught the Frenchman who managed to get going again before it happened again, and this time he hit the deck ending his chances.

With one major threat out of the way, the Australian flicked up a gear and looked in control with 5km remaining before Toth emerged and stole his gold medal.

Tallent’s fourth Olympic career medal — he now has one gold, two silver and a bronze — elevates him to the title of Australia’s greatest male track and field Olympian.

He joins Shirley Strickland as the only track and field athletes to have medalled at three separate Games.

But for the 32-year-old Ballarat walker, the anguish of missing out on his gold medal moment in London — and then almost getting it in Rio — will linger.

France's Yohann Diniz needed medical help after getting into distress in the 50km walk.

“It would have meant so much to hold on and get the gold here,” Tallent said. “I wanted to be an Olympic champion for more than a few months but I just couldn’t do it unfortunately

“My main aim was to win but failing that I wanted to get on the podium again.

“Third Olympics in a row to win a medal in the 50k event, I am really proud of that effort and that was one of my small aims, the gold was the big aim.”

Tallent didn’t want to use a hamstring niggle, which kept him out of the 20km race, as an excuse for what happened in the dramatic final four kilometres of the 50km race.

“It is hard to say (the impact) but I don’t want to make excuses or anything,” he said. “I was still able to do some running during the week, I just couldn’t walk.

“I had done all the hard work in St Moritz to then so I was tapering anyway. I felt good out there, it just didn’t happen in the last 2ks.”

Originally published as Jared Tallent wins silver medal in gruelling men’s 50km walk in Rio