Rob Heffernan not distracted by Olympic bronze promise

Five Olympics later, and as Rob Heffernan starts dreaming about that still elusive medal, he doesn’t just see Rio. If or when justice is served, he’ll also have a bronze medal from London 2012 – but he’s certainly not getting lost in that dream.

It’s over seven months now since the IAAF – the governing body of world athletics – announced their intention to appeal the “selective disqualification of results” applied to doping offences by Russian race walkers: one of those, Sergey Kirdyapkin, won the 50km walk in London, where Heffernan finished fourth. Kirdyapkin hasn’t yet been stripped of his Olympic gold, although once he is, Heffernan will be automatically promoted to bronze.

“I’d certainly hope it could be all sorted out before the end of the year,” says Heffernan. “An Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, no matter when it comes. It’s huge. It doesn’t get any bigger. But I can’t let it become a distraction, or take any of the edge off my preparations for Rio.

“I just need to make sure I’m ready to park it, mentally. Because I am now massively motivated again, for Rio. So I’m not wasting any energy on the London situation. I can’t afford to.”

Preparations

Indeed Heffernan is already focused on his fifth Olympics in every sense. Speaking at the announcement that Nissan would be supporting his Rio preparations, he admitted his fifth place finish at this summer’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing was “as good as a medal”, given the injury setbacks he’s suffered this season.

No Irish athlete has competed in five summer Olympics, and with his Rio qualification already secured, he’s poised to make history. Even at 37, he’s convinced his best years are ahead of him.

“If Beijing had gone badly, and after 2014 had gone badly, I think I would have been pretty deflated. But I know now I can still do it, that I’m still in the hunt. I consider Beijing as good a performance as I’ve ever done. I just lacked a few races, and a little more preparation.

“There was a period, earlier in the year, when I wondered if I could still do it. Marian [his wife] was very supportive, as always, and Beijing proved the desire is still there.”

Still, there’s no denying that a retrospective bronze medal from London would be a distraction – welcome or otherwise – from his Rio preparations, and Heffernan hopes the IAAF can complete the appeal process as swiftly as possible.

The issue is that while Kirdyapkin was one of six Russian race walkers banned simultaneously by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) due to irregularities in their biological passports, his ban, strangely, only included periods from July 2009 to June 2012, and from October 2012 on – effectively suggesting he was somehow clean during the London Olympics.

The IAAF then declared they were not accepting this, and filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland; CAS has a strong record of taking the IAAF’s side, and there is nothing to suggest this appeal won’t be upheld.

Upgraded

For Heffernan, who has already being upgraded to European bronze from 2010, an Olympic bronze medal would complete the set, given he won World Championship gold in 2013.

“I had that distraction before, when I was awarded the European medal from 2010 [following another Russian doping offence]. When I was told I had that medal, it was like I was walking around on a cloud again, when I just needed to park it.

“But I’ve heard nothing from the IAAF, only some information from the other walkers, such as [Australian] Jared Tallent . He’s got a lot at stake. He’s going to become Olympic champion out of it, and reckons it will be a formality, once it is properly dealt with.”