Ecuador's Jefferson Perez pulls up with cramp as he crosses the finish line to win the men's 20km race walk at the World Athletics Championships yesterday in Osaka, Japan. - - AP

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters):

Ecuadorean Jefferson Perez' 'suicide strategy' paid off when he became the first man to win three successive world 20km walk titles yesterday.

With his steely gaze fixed determinedly on the middle distance, the 33-year-old made light of the 33 degrees Celsius temperatures and high humidity.

The one hour 22 minutes and 20 seconds had clearly taken its toll, however, and he collapsed after crossing the line, his legs twitching with violent cramps.

"The three is good but what really matters is the here and now," Perez, his country's first Olympic champion, told reporters.

"Today my strategy was to challenge my spirit. I knew I could collapse during the race, you could say it was kind of a suicide strategy.

"I was not surprised when I collapsed at the end, my whole body was in pain, but I only felt the pain after the race was over."

Spain's Francisco Fernandez won his third World Championship silver medal after a jury of appeal reinstated him. The Spaniard had been disqualified for "lifting", but the jury of appeal decided his mode of progression did not merit disqualification.

Tunisian Hatem Ghoula was relegated to the bronze after the reinstatement. Both he and Fernandez were timed in 1:22.40.

Despite the conditions, Olympic champion Ivano Brugnetti led from the front and had built a 17-second lead by the halfway stage, also picked up two warnings for "lifting".

Perez attacked just after 12km mark, closing the gap on Brugnetti and taking the lead with six kilometres to go. The Italian was disqualified soon afterwards following his third offence.

Ghoula briefly led but Perez stayed with him and charged again to claim his place in the record books with two kilometres to go.