Ireland's Robert Heffernan battled his way to a sixth place finish in the 20 kilometre race walk final in Osaka to continue the feel-good vibe in the Irish camp at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championship.
Heffernan defied stifling temperatures and two warnings for lifting to come home in a time of 1 hour, 23 minutes and 42 seconds for his best ever finish at a major championships.
Corkman Heffernan was only a minute behind the bronze medal winner and was bumped up to fifth place initially when Spain's European champion Francisco Javier Fernandez, who finished second, was disqualified for lifting post-race.
However, a later Jury of Appeal decision saw the runners-up spot returned to the Spaniard and Heffernan was moved back to sixth.
The 29-year-old knew he had 'a big race' in his legs, having shown good form coming into these championships by setting a new national record (1:20.15) over the distance in May and finishing fifth in this year's European Race Walking Cup.
Coached by Polish race walking legend and four-time Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski, he prepared meticulously for Osaka with training stints in Spain and Poland.
The temperature in Osaka moved from 32 to 34 degrees Celsius, with 51% humidity, during the race but meeting the gruelling challenge head on, Heffernan went through the 5km mark in fifth place in 21:42 and was still in medal contention in sixth (1:02.46) with 5km to go.
Ecuador's Jefferson Perez took gold in a time of 1:22.20 with Spain's Fernandez and Hatem Ghoula of Tunisia incredibly finishing in the same time (1:22.40) in a memorable duel for silver - Fernandez made up a 15-metre gap on Ghoula and took his place on the podium after winning an appeal against a disqualification.
Winner Perez is the current world record holder and was claiming his third straight World Championship gold, after victories in Paris (2003) and Helsinki (2005).
Heffernan hit the line just six seconds behind fourth-placed Mexican Eder Sanchez and given that the top three finishers are all older than him, the Togher clubman's best years should be ahead of him.
He is no stranger to performing well at major events - he finished 14th at the World Championships in Edmonton in 2001 and came home in eighth place at the 2002 Europeans in Munich.
Elsewhere, American Reese Hoffa's 22.04m third round throw earned him the shot putt gold medal, while Ethopian Tirunesh Dibaba defended her 10,000m title with ease.
Briton Jo Pavey came home in fourth position.
