Italy's Alex Schwazer exults in winning the 50km race walk at Beijing on Friday. (Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press)

Italy's Alex Schwazer broke the Olympic record as he captured the gold medal in the men's 50-kilometre race walk at the Summer Olympics in Beijing on Friday.

Schwazer, 23, covered the distance in a brisk three hours 37.09 minutes — shattering Vyacheslav Ivanenko's Olympic standard of 3:38.29, which had stood since the 1988 Seoul Games.

Schwazer repeatedly pointed to the sky in triumph as he entered the National Stadium to a rousing ovation from the capacity crowd of 91,000.

Physically spent and overcome with emotion, the victorious Italian crossed the finish line, fell to his knees — and wept.

Australia's Jared Tallent secured the silver medal in 3:39.27.

World record holder Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia took the bronze in 3:40.14.

Edmonton's Tim Berrett, the second-oldest competitor in the field at 43, finished 38th overall in 4:08.18.

"Everything [aches]," he said. "I'm just totally, absolutely drained."

Berrett's season best of 3:52:41 is more than two minutes off his personal best.

Beaming sunshine outside Bird's Nest

Most of the race was staged on a baguette-shaped street circuit outside the Bird's Nest in beaming sunshine, in complete contrast to the atrocious conditions the women endured the morning before, when winner Olga Kaniskina broke the Olympic record in the 20km walk in a torrential downpour.

Nizhegorodov held a decent lead at the 15km mark, but it was swiftly reduced by the tightly packed chase group of China's Li Li Jianbo, Tallent and Schwazer.

They maintained that order until Tallent inched ahead at the two-hour juncture, with Schwazer at his left shoulder and Nizhegorodov and Li one stride behind.

The lead constantly changed hands between Schwazer and Tallent heading into the third hour, with Nizhegorodov in hot pursuit.

Li, by that point, had fallen to fourth and out of medal contention.

Schwazer took control with 20 minutes remaining, setting a relentless pace and surging in front by 40 seconds over Tallent.

Nizhegorodov, having incurred two penalties, faded to third.

Nizhegorodov broke the world record at a meet in Cheboksary, Russia, on May 11, three minutes ahead of Schwazer in 3:34.14.

With files from the Canadian Press