In a ceremony in the River Lee Hotel, Robert Heffernan was awarded the Cork City Sports Athlete of the Month Award for August. Heffernan won World Championships in Moscow in the 50K walk in a time of 3 hours, 37 minutes and 56 seconds – just two seconds off his own Irish record – gave him over a minute to spare on the Russian Mikhail Ryzhov, but this was all about winning the medal, and they don’t come any sweeter with gold.

Rarely has a gold medal performance in the men’s 50km walk at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow looked so comfortable, and never has it been more deserving: fourth in the London Olympics last summer, with several other heartbreaks to go with that, Heffernan produced a truly flawless display in the heat and humidity of Moscow.

The win came exactly 30 years to the day – August 14th – since Eamonn Coghlan won Ireland’s first gold medal, at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki, over 5,000 metres. It was another 12 years before Sonia O’Sullivan matched that feat, winning the gold medal in the women’s 5,000 metres at the 1995 World Championships, in Gothenburg – but now Heffernan becomes Ireland’s only second ever men’s World Champion.

Heffernan now returns to training as he commences his preparation for his next target in Rio.