RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Matej Toth now has Olympic gold to go with his world title.
With a late surge past Australian Jared Tallent, the Slovakian won the longest athletics event at the Rio Games, the men’s 50-kilometer race walk.
Tallent again finished in second place, but at least this time it wasn’t behind a Russian dope cheat, as was the case at the 2012 London Olympics.
Toth, the world champion, blew a kiss at the camera and picked up a Slovakian flag from a bystander to drape across his shoulders before crossing the line in 3 hours, 40:58 minutes on Friday.
As in London, Tallent won’t get a moment of glory on top of the medal podium. He had to wait nearly four years for his gold from those games, after it was stripped from Russia doper Sergei Kirdyapkin.
He finished in 3:41:16 for silver behind Toth.
Behind them, Hirooki Arai of Japan beat Canada’s Evan Dunfee for bronze.