Cleveland's Nathan Deakes has bowed out of competitive race walking after his swansong at the London Olympics last night.
Deakes, whose parents Liz and Doug Deakes run Cleveland's Di Mati coffee shop, came 22nd in the race, in which his 27-year-old team-mate Jared Tallent won silver and Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin won gold.
For the first 10km, Deakes was in the lead group with Tallent, from Ballarat, and nine other walkers, including fellow Aussie Luke Adams.
He was still among the leaders at the 30km mark, but fell behind while Tallent stayed with the top five.
After the race, which was always going to be his swansong, Deakes remained philosophical.
He said his competitive career may have ended but he was looking forward to his new life as a dad.
His wife, Antoinette, is due to have a baby this month.
The 34-year-old althlete, who was forced to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics after injury, was crowned world champion in Osaka, Japan, in 2007.
Last night, Kirdyapkin crossed the line 56 seconds ahead of Tallent in an Olympic record time of 3 hours 39 minutes 59 seconds.
