Rob Heffernan reveals turmoil over drugs test

Olympic hero Rob Heffernan has spoken about how his career hung in the balance after a doping test conducted moments after he woke from hip surgery produced an adverse result.

Heffernan revealed his personal turmoil yesterday, as he became the first Irish athlete to be presented with an Olympic medal on Irish soil during an historic ceremony in Cork’s City Hall last night. He was upgraded from fourth to bronze for the 2012 London Olympics 50km walk after the Russian athlete who won was stripped of gold after failing a drugs test.

But Heffernan spoke about how he feared his own career was over in the wake of a post-surgery doping test last year. He described the next five weeks, during which he sought to clear his name amid fears of being labelled a drugs cheat, as the worst time of his life. And he said protocols have still not been put in place to protect other Irish athletes from a similar nightmare scenario: “It had the capability of completely destroying me. It was tougher than when my mother died. I was in such a bad place, seeing no way out.”