Race walker Jared Tallent will finish this week with an Olympic Games gold medal around his neck, but he had to settle for third place when Chris Erickson denied him a 10th Lake Burley Griffin title on Sunday.
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Tallent and Erickson battled a minus-four degree freeze to renew a rivalry that dates back more than a decade in the 50th Lake Burley Griffin walking carnival.
The 32-kilometre event was the pair's last lead-up race before the Rio Olympics and their last competitive hit-out before going to Switzerland for a race-walking training camp in the build-up to the Games.
It kickstarted a big week for Tallent, with the former Canberra-based walker to be presented with a retrospective gold medal from the 2012 London Olympics after the man who beat him, Sergey Kirdyapkin, was stripped of the title for using performance-enhancing drugs.
More than 150 of Tallent's family and friends will join well-wishers at the medal ceremony in Melbourne on Friday.
But it was Erickson who got one over his friend and rival, winning the Lake Burley Griffin race for the first time in 14 attempts and going under two hours and two minutes for the first time.
"This was the one domestic race I've been targeting, I've always been trying to get under that 2.20 mark and I finally did it. Usually in this race I'm getting towelled up by Jared," Erickson grinned.
"I'll do the next four-week block at home and jump in the altitude tent at home before going across to Switzerland to hook up with the rest of the guys.
"This was my last real race and now it's about putting the icing on the top for me."
Tallent is a three-time Olympic medal winner and has set his sights on more success in Rio.
Tallent and Erickson were two of five Olympians competing in the 50th anniversary carnival while veteran Robin Whyte made it 50 consecutive years in the race.
The Canberra cold was a world away from what awaits in Brazil as temperatures dropped before the start gun and part of the course was covered in ice.
Tallent was aiming to make it a perfect 10 of Lake Burley Griffin titles, but Erickson made a break at the halfway mark and couldn't be reeled in.
"This one's the biggest walking carnival of the year ... it would have been good to make it 10 but Chris is travelling really well and wants to get top eight [at the Olympics]," Tallent said.
"He's on track for that and it's good to see him do so well. It's good to have that competition and we're going to be training together, we'll push each other and benefit from that."
Tallent will get his gold medal at a special ceremony this week after waiting four years for Kirdyapkin to be disqualified.
"I can't wait, it's going to be a big week and I'm very excited. It's long overdue, but I'm looking to celebrate that moment when I get the gold medal around my neck," Tallent said.
"It's going to be a big moment before we leave [to train overseas] the following Monday. We've invited just 150 people and then there will be a large athletics contingent as well."
LAKE BURLEY GRIFFIN WALKING CARNIVAL
32-kilometre race (20 miles): 1st Chris Erickson 2.19:51, 2nd Quentin Rew 2.21:26, 3rd Jared Tallent 2.23: 43.
