Cork Athlete Rob Heffernan who won the 3K Walk at the Cork City Sports in July, today became World Champion when we won the 50K walk in a world leading time of 3:37:56 at the World Track and Field Championships in Moscow.

The first 30km of the race saw Heffernan and co. separate themselves from the rest of the field and it was Poland’s Grzgorz Sudol who held a narrow lead at 30km with Heffernan, Ryzhov and Ivan Noskov of Russia in close attendance. But, shortly afterwards, Heffernan and Ryzhov began to up the tempo – Sudol and Noskov unable to live with the pace. Then came an almighty battle between the two athletes between 30km and 40km. At 35km, the Russian made a big surge, opening a 10m gap and putting the pressure on Heffernan, who reacted coolly and was not shaken – “I’ve coped with all of this pressure before…I said, ‘leave him go, then bury him at 40km.’” Heffernan stayed calm and made the decisive move at 40km, never looking back as he continued to pull away from his Russian rival. Despite receiving one yellow card, the victory was never in doubt and he could even afford to smile as he coasted around the final 400m on his way to the world title.

Of all the great achievements by Irish athletes at major championships, this is probably the most popular and well deserved. Rob has been so close on so many occasions, including an agonising 4th at last year’s London Olympics