THERE WAS DELIGHT today in Donegal after confirmation that Cork race walker Rob Heffernan is set to be finally given an Olympic bronze medal, four years on from the men’s 50k walk at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne confirmed this morning that cases against six Russian athletes, issued with ‘selective disqualification of results’ by Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency, RUSADA, were all upheld.
One of the six, Sergey Kirdyapkin, won the 50k walk in London and subsequently failed a doping test.
“All competitive results obtained by Sergey Kirdyapkin from 20th August 2009 to 15th October 2012 are disqualified,” CAS said.
The IAAF is now likely to re-allocated the medals and Cork’s Heffernan – who finished fourth in the race – can expect to have an Olympic bronze draped around his neck at last.
Milford race walker Brendan Boyce trains with Heffernan in Cork.
“It’s unreal, I’m buzzing and it’s not even for me,” Boyce told Donegal Sport Hub this morning.
“Winning an Olympic medal for your country is the highest honour in sport and I think it’s our duty to celebrate this achievement now as if the race was today.”
Boyce is training in Letterkenny this morning and will travel back to Cork later today.
Boyce also competed in that race in London and his own result improves to 26th as a consequence of the CAS findings.
Finn Valley AC’s Patsy McGonagle, the Irish Athletics Team Manager, consoled Heffernan in the immediate aftermath of the race in 2012.
“Devastation was the feeling,” McGonagle said.
“He had walked an unbelievable good performance and was fourth.
“We were always of the opinion that the Russians shouldn’t have been in the race.
“It was all difficult to deal with and that was the challenge for me in the aftermath of the race. It was hard to live with, but I always said: ‘This mightn’t be the end of it’.
“The Russians were so dominant and drugs clearly played a part.”
Heffernan will compete in this year’s Olympic Games in Rio and McGonagle said: “He can’t lose his focus now. He is on a serious mission to go for another medal here.
“Rob is arguably one of our best ever athletes. Hopefully he will get an occasion, and a fitting one for a medal presentation.”
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