Heffernan preparing for a different walk of life
THE retirement of Rob Heffernan did not come as a surprise, but it does bring to an end the most successful Irish track and field career of this generation. The 40-year-old will now slip into the corporate world with many reasons to take enormous pride from his achievements. He is the only Irish athlete to compete in five Olympic Games, a remarkable feat in itself but especially so in a discipline as gruelling as race-walking. The undoubted high point of his career was the gold medal he won in the 50km race at the World Championships in 2013. At the Olympics, his best finish was fourth at London in 2012 — but this was later upgraded to bronze after a Russian competitor was found guilty of doping offences. He also won a medal at the European Championships, winning bronze in the 20km walk in 2010. Perhaps the defining feature of Heffernan’s long career was a ferocious appetite to get better — as illustrated by his performances on the biggest stage. Heffernan made his Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000, finishing 28th in the 20km walk. Four years later, the Corkman was disqualified in the same event at the Athens Olympics. Disqualification is an ever-present danger in race-walking, given the rule that the athlete must be in contact with the ground at all times, and that the leading leg must remain straight until the foot makes contact with the ground. In Beijing four years later, Heffernan came eighth in the 20km walk. By the time of the London Games, he was competing at 50km, finishing fourth before his eventual upgrade. At Rio in 2016, again competing over 50km, he came sixth. Heffernan’s career was not without controversy, centring mainly on his friendship with Francisco ‘Paco’ Fernandez, a former Olympic silver medallist who served a ban for possession of EPO. Heffernan denied claims in 2012 that he was training with Fernandez. He revealed in his autobiography, published in 2016, that he failed a drugs test in 2015 — testing positive for hydroxyethyl starch, which can be used as a masking agent for EPO. However, he was able to show that its presence in his sample was the result of paracetamol he was given during surgery. Heffernan will now work as a retail banking ambassador in the Munster area for Bank of Ireland.