Did you hear about the race walkers who married in Walkerville?
Two-time Olympic race walking medallist Jared Tallent is married to fellow Aussie international Claire Tallent. And guess what? They tied the knot in Walkerville. spikesmag.com found out more…
How did you get into race walking?
JT: I started in
Little Athletics. Out of my group I used to win the walk, although I didn’t start doing school competitions until I was about 13. One year I didn’t make the team for the regional championships in distance running, so I decided that doing the walk would mean a day off school. I made it to the state final, won the bronze medal and it went from there.
CT: I used to fancy myself as a middle-distance runner. I won 800m races in primary school and made a few state cross-country teams. My club needed someone to do the walks, so I stepped in. Our national winter championships happened to be in Adelaide, which is where I’m from. I did okay and the state coach at the time said I should try for the state team. I got into the nationals and came third.
So how did you guys first meet?
JT: We first met each other at the AIS (
Australian Institute of Sport) in Canberra, where all the best walkers train. I’m from Ballarat in Victoria and Claire is from Adelaide but we both ended up there.
Race walking is a rather unusual event, do you get much stick for doing the sport?
CT: It’s accepted in Canberra just because the AIS has been there for so long. People like Simon Baker and Kerry Saxby have trained there. So no, we don’t get too much (stick).
Australia has quite a tradition in race walking, is that because kids are introduced to it from a young age through Little Athletics?
JT: I think it is because of the training centre. It’s very professional.
CT: I don’t think it’s so much competing at a young age – a lot of clubs don’t hold walks anymore because they don’t have people with the expertise.
JT: There are few good clubs as well. I think all the walkers in the Australian team have a similar sort of story. They used to be okay distance runners but not super.
You guys were married in a place called Walkerville, right?
CT: Yes, after we got home from the Olympics in Beijing.
JT: Walkerville is the next suburb down the road from where Claire’s from. It’s a pretty affluent suburb, close to the river.
Were you aware when you booked the wedding that you were walkers getting married in the town of Walkerville?
JT: No, only when one of my friends from Ballarat rang me up and said ‘is this a joke?’ and then it kind of clicked.
CT: We had all sorts of jokes on the radio of two walkers getting married in Walkerville and then having the reception at the Walker’s Arms (that bit is a joke, though).
What did you make of it all?
CT: People just took the piss out of us the whole time really. It was our 15 minutes of fame! The actual wedding day was a bit bizarre. We had TV cameras outside the church and we had to be shielded by umbrellas. We ended up getting a deal with one of the magazines, so they were pretty tight about other people taking pictures.
Do you guys train together?
JT: Yes, we train together but not side by side.
CT: We are in the same squad, have the same coach and train at the same place.
At home are you both pretty competitive in whatever you do?
CT: I guess we are.
JT: When it comes to ball sports and stuff. Not good.
CT: I used to play everything as a kid. I played netball, basketball and Aussie Rules for a while. My hand-eye co-ordination is pretty good.
CT: We play a bit of tennis on the Wi. Jared beats me on that. He’s better on computer games.
What is the best thing about both being race walkers?
CT: The best thing, for sure, is being able to do all of this together.
JT: Last year we were at the Olympics together and just being able to share it was great. Also going on training camps together is fun, too.
Do either of you ever wish you were a runner?
CT: Yes, for sure. You go out on the track for a 200m or 1500m race and it’s over very quickly. It is very different being a track athlete to a race walker, when you out on the road for a long time.
***Read about the Tallents in the latest issue of SPIKES Magazine***
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