Bird-Smith, Montag claim Olympic berths

Walkers Dane Bird-Smith and Jemima Montag have secured their Tokyo Olympic berths as the first Australians across the line in the 20km races at the national championships.

Bird-Smith, the 20km bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Games, finished third in the men's race in Adelaide on Sunday behind Sweden's world No.2 Perseus Karlstrom and Canada's Evan Dunfee.

Bird-Smith's time of one hour 23 minutes and one second was outside the automatic qualifying mark, but the Queenslander had previously bettered that standard last year.

Montag, who was an impressive 10th at last year's world championships in Doha, clocked 1:33:15 to win the women's 20km national title.

Her fellow Australians Katie Hayward (1:34:00) and Beki Smith (1:35:06) claimed the other podium places.

Bird-Smith and Montag won the 20km walk gold medals at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.