A lot of Tallant in team
TWO months after giving birth to their first child, Claire Tallent will join husband Jared in competing for gold at the London world championships starting next week.
Claire, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist in the 20km walk, was training the day after Harvey Tallent came into the world in May.
And in another twist to this extraordinary tale, she’s replacing her sister-in-law in the Australian team.
Australia is set to send a team of more than 50 athletes to the August 4-13 world titles, with Jared, the 2012 Olympic 50km walk champion, again one of the main medal chances alongside hurdles star Sally Pearson.
Claire, 36, was by her husband’s side at the Rio Olympics last year acting as his coach when he finished second in the 50km event.
She’d retired after the 2012 Games to focus on trying to start a family, but the couple experienced a number of problems and had been on IVF for the past couple of years.
A spot in the London team came about after Rachel Tallent, Jared’s sister and Claire’s coach, pulled out with injury.
Claire had returned to competition on a part-time basis recently and registered the required qualifying time to warrant selection.
A squad of 48 was named yesterday by Athletics Australia, but another handful will be included via the IAAF RollDown process, a system which fills event quotas based on international rankings.
Last-minute additions included US college runner Morgan McDonald and Queensland teenager Ella Connolly.
McDonald, from Sydney, attends the University of Wisconsin and ran a 5000m personal best of 13min15.83sec in Belgium at the weekend.
That was enough to earn him Australia’s third 5000m berth alongside Sam McEntee and Patrick Tiernan.
Connolly, 17 has spent the past week representing Australia in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, winning a number of medals.
She has been added to the 4x400m relay team.
Athletics Australia chairman of selectors Dion Russell said having the biggest team since the 1999 world championships in Seville was a great pointer to next year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
“To see so many of our best qualified to compete in the months before a major competition on home soil is fantastic,” Russell said.
Sprint legend Usain Bolt and distance star Mo Farah will retire after the event.