Rob Heffernan dreams of Olympic bronze amid world doping row

World champion walker Rob Heffernan has said he is “dreaming” amid reports that he may be upgraded to Olympic bronze following the doping scandal that has engulfed world athletics.

Yesterday’s report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found that Russia operated a massive state sponsored doping programme which essentially sabotaged the London 2012 Olympics.

It has recommended that the country be banned from athletics and barred from next years’s Olympic Games in Rio unless it completely overhauls its approach.

The report has given hope to some Irish athletes who missed out on medals after finishing behind winners who are now known dopers.

Heffernan was left devastated after finishing fourth in the 50km walk at the London Games. He went on to win the 50km world title the following year.

The winner of the London Games in Heffernan’s event was Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin — who smashed the Olympic record on his way to taking gold. He was suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) earlier this year due to irregularities in his biological passport and in light of recent revelations may be stripped of his Olympic gold — thereby upgrading Heffernan to bronze.

The Cork star took to Twitter to express his emotions at developments, stating: “I might go back to sleep or am I dreaming? #olympicmedal”. He later changed his profile to describe himself as: “World champion, European champion, Olympic medallist in waiting”.

@KCsixtyseven I might go back to sleep or am I dreaming #olympicmedal

— Rob Heffernan OLY (@RM_Heffernan) November 9, 2015

Another Cork athletics star, Olive Loughnane, is also in line for a medal upgrade. Loughnane won silver in the 20km walk at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009.

However, Russia’s Olga Kaniskina, who won gold, has subsequently had her medal stripped.

Loughnane said she was “shocked” by the contents of the WADA report but said she is still waiting for her gold medal to arrive.

“There’s still no sign of it but I suppose one thing I am very cognisant of is that there is a human side to this as well. The girl who won the Olympic title in my event in 2012, she was subsequently banned. She took a drug called GW1516 which was being tested on animals and found to be carcinogenic. She was 19 years of age and she was in a system where that in order to compete she had to take that drug. I am very glad that I am not in that system,” she told RTÉ.

She said it was “impossible” to believe Russia had moved away from its doping culture and called for the country to be barred from the Rio Olympics. “It’s been there for so long, it’s so ingrained in their culture, it’s so ingrained in their system. I don’t believe that they have all of that problem solved over the space of a couple of months,” she said.

Former 5,000m World Champion Eamon Coughlan said the WADA report showed clean athletes had been “betrayed” by the very body that was there to protect them — the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).