The 23-year-old won the Australian championship at Melbourne's Albert Park on Sunday.

He smashed his personal best by more than 10 seconds, producing the third fastest time by an Australian in history, with a time of three hours 44 minutes and 45 seconds, 15 minutes under the Olympic A-qualifying time of four

hours.

Five other walkers finished the race in under the Olympic qualifying time, but Tallent was a clear winner, finishing eight minutes faster than his nearest rival.

Tallent said his main focus of the event was setting a time that would book him a place at the Olympics.

"It's only my second 50km and the last one was a year ago, so I'm a lot fitter since then. I was always pretty confident because I have been training well," Tallent said.

The result was extra satisfying for Tallent, who strained a hamstring about a month ago. He said taking the lead from the very first step of the race gave him the confidence to continue dominating the race

"I went through the 10km mark about two minutes ahead and kept increasing the lead with each 10 kilometres."

He now has his sights on qualifying for the 20km walk at the Olympics at an event in February.

Tallent, the bronze medallist over 20km at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, missed selection for the 50km event at this year's world championships in Osaka and was disqualified in the 20km when ensconced in the top

six with five kilometres remaining.

"After what happened in Osaka, I have been working on my technique a lot and it was really solid on Sunday," Talent said.

The Canberra-based athlete attended Dean Primary School and Ballarat High School.

He said he would continue training while spending Christmas at his parents farm at Newlyn.

"I enjoy getting back out on the roads around my parents house, there's not many cars around so it's pretty good."

His parents Peter and Cathy were at Albert Park for Sunday's race.

The Beijing Olympics start in August next year.