Olympic race walk champion Jared Tallent has given short shrift to Alex Schwazer’s protests of innocence after the Italian’s latest positive drugs test.

Schwazer, who won the 50km gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, returned a positive result for a steroid, six weeks after he returned from a near-four-year doping ban to win the world title in Rome.

Schwazer denied any wrongdoing and said he was a victim of sabotage, but Tallent, runner-up in Rome and edged for the Beijing gold by the Italian, was having none of it.

“Last time Schwazer held a press conference he lied and told made-up stories,” Tallent tweeted yesterday. “Why would anyone believe him this time?” he added’.

Schwazer was excluded from his London title defence after testing positive for the blood-booster EPO in 2012 and cried when admitting his guilt at a media conference.

Banned for three years and six months, he was given an additional six-month ban with three months suspended last year for evading anti-doping tests.

His ban expired in April.

Tallent was presented with the London Games gold medal in Melbourne last week, four years after he finished runner-up behind a Russian drug cheat who was stripped of the title by a Court of Arbitration of Sport decision in March.

Schwazer’s positive test has ignited hopes in Australia that Tallent could be due for more retroactive glory.

The Australian said he had lost focus at the worlds in Rome when he realised Schwazer was competing there after returning from his ban.