Rob Heffernan’s eyes open wide — cartoon wide — when it is put to him that he might have missed out on the chance of representing Nemo Rangers over the years because of his all-consuming devotion to race-walking.

RACE walking legend Robert Korzeniowski arrives in Beijing today to help Robert Heffernan put the finishing touches to his preparations for tomorrow morning’s (2am Irish time) 20km walk.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN will be looking for the performance of a lifetime when he faces double European champion, Francisco Fernandez, in the 5,000m walk at the Irish Indoor Championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast tomorrow, with Gillian O’Sullivan also looking for something special.

ROBERT HEFFERNAN is back on the road and heralded his return by finishing third in a 10k race in Krakow at the weekend behind Ilya Markov (Russia), silver medallist in the Olympics in 1996, and the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, Francisco Fernandez (Spain).