Emotional Heffernan has big plans for future

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.

Among the crowds at Dublin Airport to greet 35-year-old Robert Heffernan were his biggest fans — children Cathal (10) and Meghan (8). They had watched their dad race walk his way to victory and into athletics history on the television at home in Cork.

“I was very emotional because it was our dad who was world champion,” said Meghan in reaction to seeing him breast the tape in first.