Silver and bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics, 23-year-old Tallent picked up a $36,000 prize for his victory in the annual challenge series.

His second place at the final 20km event, in Murcia, Spain, in a time of 1hr 24min 02sec, gave Tallent enough competition points to secure the title won in 2007 by fellow Canberra walker Luke Adams.

Spaniard Francisco Javier Fernandez won the race in 1:23.14, while Adams finished in seventh place and ninth overall.

''I would have settled for second, and I never thought I was going to be overall winner,'' Tallent said.

Tallent's wife Claire (nee Woods) spoke to him after his big night of celebrations at the end of a breakthrough year.

''One of the other walkers, Eric Tysse, rang me last night to say he'd put Jared to bed. He'd had a big night, which was really funny because he's usually so quiet. He's pretty excited about it all,'' she said.

Tallent and then fiancee Claire, also an Olympic walker, shot from obscurity to national fame when he completed a medal double in the 20km and 50km events in Beijing.

They were able to sell the exclusive rights to their wedding to a magazine and TV network, an option they gladly took up given they earn little from the sport.

But, as Claire said yesterday, their ''five minutes of fame'' created plenty of hassles, including having to ensure other media didn't take their photos at the church in Adelaide.

To maintain their end of the deal, Claire had to be shielded from cameras behind a colourful golf umbrella and their family photos had to be taken inside the church.

They then had to endure public criticism for their part in a ''media circus''.

''We didn't really enjoy a lot of that aspect of it, because we're pretty shy and it was a big shock to us,'' she said.