Deakes finished in 3 hours, 35 minutes, 47 seconds in the Australian national championship race, breaking Korzeniowski's time of 3:36.03. Korzeniowski retired in 2004 after winning his fourth Olympic title at Athens.

Deakes, who also slashed four minutes off his personal best, took additional measures to ensure his world mark is ratified _ he took an extra drug test.

The 29-year-old Deakes did the standard urine test after the race but decided to travel to a laboratory in nearby Melbourne to undergo a blood test for EPO, or erythropoietin.

"The officials were saying the urine test was probably going to be sufficient (to have the world record ratified) but I wanted to make sure," said Deakes.

The four-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist should end the year at No. 1 in the official IAAF rankings for the 50-k walk, overtaking Spain's Francisco Javier Fernandez.

Deakes has previously been disqualified in the 50-kilometer race at the 2001 world titles and the 2004 Olympics. But he completed Saturday's race without picking up a single caution or warning from the judges.