Heffernan has spring in his step as Irish hope to get off to flyer in Berlin
The tough Togher athlete finished eighth in last year’s Olympic equivalent in Beijing but it was in Osaka two years ago where he provided Irish athletes with the perfect start when he finished sixth behind the now-retired race walking legend, Jefferson Perez.
“That’s the type of start we will need again,” McGonagle said yesterday as the Irish athletes assembled at their base just half an hour’s drive from the historic Olympic Stadium.
“I was talking to his coach, Robert Korzeniowski, yesterday and he told me he did a session with Robbie in Spala on Thursday of last week.
“He reckons he is in very good mental shape. He reckons his approach is better than ever. He is not jumping about the place — buzzing around — he is nice and settled.”
Last year’s performance in Beijing was outstanding from the Corkman, who holds all the Irish records up to and including 20k, closing on his training partner, Francisco “Paco” Fernandez, all the way to the line. A year earlier the Spaniard, a former world record holder, won a silver medal in Osaka.
“I have mixed emotions about it,” said Heffernan who actually led the race for a time. “I always said going into the race that I wanted to be there at 13 or 14k and I was, I tried to make a little bit of a move and I was probably just missing a year of training to have that explosiveness at the end and the strength.”
He then took a well-earned break before he launched his build up to Berlin come the turn of the year.
However, he incurred another setback in the form of an ankle injury sustained when he stepped awkwardly while coaching a young walker at The Mardyke.
He went through the pain barrier again and then, in his first outdoor race of the season, the Munster championships, he clocked a world leading time for 10k.
He was still having treatment when he won the Dublin Grand Prix and he was disappointed when he had bronze snatched from him by Jean-Jaques Nkouloukidi with the finish line in sight to complete a clean sweep for Italy at the European Cup in Metz.
The 23-year-old became the youngest ever Olympic race walking champion when he won his first major title in Beijing and arrives in Berlin with the world leading time — 1:17:38 — and an unbeaten record from his three races this season.
While Thomas Chamney has been training for 1,500m this year, the 800m remains his prime event but today he will line up for the heats of what promises to be an exciting 1,500m.
No country has ever done it before in the men’s 1500m at the world championships but the Kenyans could mop up all the medals this time.
Leading the charge will be Asbel Kiprop, last year’s Olympic silver medallist.
The last man to beat him was another Kenyan, Haron Keitany, while a third, Augustine Choge, has shown major improvement this season while Bernard Lagat, the champion and another former Kenyan, are in the hunt.
Roisín McGettigan, a finalist in the 3,000m steeplechase in Beijing last year after winning her semi-final, has been struggling to rediscover that form since a training stint at altitude. She, too, is in action today hoping her form will turn around.
Olympic champion Gulnara Galkina, is arguably one of the most dominant athletes. .
This year in Rome she defeated compatriot Yekaterina Volkova, the only woman to have won three golds in steeplechase finals since 2005, by a clear margin of six seconds.
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