It’s his final shot, and he knows it. Rob Heffernan may have an Olympic bronze medal to his name — at least that’s what the record books say — but he has yet to lay his hands on it.

Having wiggled and waggled his way to winning a world championship, the country’s latest antidote to austerity blues arrived home last night to the kind of welcome only a hero deserves.

Race-walking legend Olive Loughnane believes Robert Heffernan can use his fourth place finish at the London Olympics as a springboard to success at the upcoming World Track and Field Championships in Moscow.