Silver to Jared Tallent
JARED Tallent has walked his to an Olympic silver medal in London and Australian sporting history again.
He finished second in the 50km walk last night.
Tallent is only the second Australian male to earn three Olympic medals in athletics.
He joins Stan Rowley, who won gold in the 5000m team event, and bronze medals in the 60m, 100m and 200m in 1900.
Tallent, of Newlyn, took silver in the 50km walk in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in the 20km at the same Games.
His Beijing performance made him the first Australian male track and field athlete to win two medals at the one Olympics, joining Rowley and Edwin Flack, who took away two gold medals in 1896.
The Canberra-based Tallent, 27, narrowly missed out on another double in London, finishing seventh in the 20km walk.
Tallent had anything but a smooth path to silver on the streets of London though.
He had two red cards inside the first 20km.
A third red card would have meant disqualification.
Avoiding this unwanted fate made the Ballarat sporting great’s effort all the more impressive.
"(The red cards) were very rattling," Tallent told AAP.
"I have never had two cards that early in a 50k race before.
“It looked like my Olympic dream of winning was disappearing.
"For the next 10 kilometres I was really, really nervous and every lap I came around past the chief judge I thought, 'This was going to be it, the end of my race'.
"After another 10 kilometres I really started to think about my technique and just try and stay relaxed and comfortable which was quite hard because you think about it every second when the race has got another two hours to go," he said
Tallent joins rower Anthony Edwards as a Ballarat three-time Olympic medallist.
Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin, a two-time world champion, won gold in the Olympic record time of three hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds.
Tallent also broke the old Olympic record with a personal best of 3:36.53.
Tianfeng Si (3:37.16) took bronze.
Other Australians Nathan Deakes (3:48.45) was 22nd and Luke Adams (3:53.41) 26th.
How Jared Tallent’s race evolved:
WOMEN’S 20KM WALK
IT was a disappointing day for Jared Tallent’s wife Claire.
She was disqualified after 12km, 52 minutes into the event.
She was 10th at the time, one minute, 27 seconds down.
Russia finished first and second with gold to Elena Lashmanova (1:25.02) by seven seconds over OlgaKaniskina.
Shenjie Qieyang from China was third.
Australia’s Regan Lamble was 17th and Beki Lee 28th.
Despite the disappointment, Claire Tallent told AAP: "It was the best event ever.”
"I know how hard we both worked.
"I know that he (Jared) did everything he did and I know I did everything I had in my power, but it just didn't work out for me.
"He had the goods. I didn't."
Claire Tallent, 31, hinted her Olympics career was over, but said the sport was in safe hands.
She insisted she would be focusing on the positives.
"We'll celebrate Jared's great success and try and forget the bad things.
"It's just part of the sport - we know it - it still hurts really, really bad."
BASKETBALL
RACHEL Jarry has claimed a bronze medal in first Olympics after Australia defeated Russia in the play-off for third and fourth.
Final scores: 83-74.
Jarry rounded out her London campaign with another solid performance, playing 23 minutes for eight points and three rebounds.
The United States cruised to the gold medal, defeating France 86-50.