Sweet return for Heffernan

ROBERT Heffernan put weeks of frustration behind him when he retained his 10,000m walk title at the Woodies DIY National track and field championships at Morton Stadium yesterday where he beat his Olympic team mate, Jamie Costin, who claimed his 3,000m record in Cork a week earlier and, to cap it all, picked up the Athlete of the Meet Award and the €1,000 that went with it.

The Togher man surged clear of Costin two laps into the race and, throughout the remaining 23 laps he burned off the frustrations that he took with him into the race. He was already battling a hip injury when, with the help of his long time sports masseur and technical advisor, Liam O’Brien, they went to an altitude training camp in Lavino, Italy, where facilities were non-existent.

“To be honest it was terrible and I had to change my plans pretty quickly,” he said. “There was a 5k stretch there, really hilly. One day I did a 30k and it was 15k out and back — through tunnels on the side of a mountain — you could not hear the cars in the tunnels and I had to stop or I would have been killed.

“Then I picked up a bit of an injury — a bit of an infection — and there were no doctors out there. I could not get a blood test and I thought I was anaemic so I went back to my old training base in Spain. Liam O’Reilly came with me and the weather was great — familiarity with all the courses — and it was great. So it is a little bit the same as last year or the year before if not a little bit better — your heart rate, your lactics, all good.”

To win the athlete of the meet award he had to peg back Paul Hession who reclaimed the 200m title on Saturday.

Hession had to turn down a lane in the 200m at the Diamond League Meeting in Gateshead on Saturday to fulfil the criteria for selection for the European championships and for the second successive weekend, battled his way through wet and windy conditions for an emphatic 20.77 victory to round off his competitive preparations for his European championship campaign.

It was the fastest 200m run in Santry since 2007 when he set the national record at 20.30 secs. Mullingar-born Steven Colvert (UCD), 21.41 secs, was runner-up with the bronze medal going to Darragh Graham (Sli Cualann), 21.58 secs.

“I am happy enough with that,” Hession said. “It is harder to get psyched when you know you are going win. I really had to force myself — I was almost shouting at myself to get up for it — so I am actually happy enough with it.”

Hession has run 20.46 twice this year — in Budapest in the European Team Championships and then in the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on Thursday night and that time places him third in the European rankings behind Martian Mbandjod (France) and Sebastian Ernst (Germany) who have both run 20.38 secs.

“I think this year more than ever I said I didn’t care what I was running up to the Europeans,” he said. “None of my races up to now have been perfect races and it’s almost better because I can go into the championships knowing that I can drop another metre, at least, off that if I just get it right.”

Ireland will have three representatives in the men’s 400m after yesterday’s sensational 400m final — run without David Gillick who eventually withdrew from the 100 as a precaution after feeling a niggling pain in his instep in the heats — which saw Gordon Kennedy (Tullamore Harriers) win the title in 46.57 secs. That was inside the qualifying standard for the European championships, beating young Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers), 46.89, who already has his standard for Barcelona.

Thomas Chamney (Crusaders) arrived back from his big 1,500m run in Barcelona on Friday night in time to defend his 800m title and he did it in style, fighting off long time leader, Eoin Everard (KCH) and then holding off Darren McBrearty (Letterkenny AC) and Anthony Lieghio (Tallaght AC) to win in 1:48.84.

Mark Christie (Mullingar Harriers) who has the standard at 5,000m underscored his wellbeing with an impressive victory in the 1,500m in 3:48.22 while Alistair Cragg (Clonliffe Harriers) got back from Saturday’s Diamond League Meeting in Gateshead where he ran 13:21.66 for 5,000m to win the 5,000m title and declare his intentions for Barcelona.

Patrick Maher (Leevale) who competes in the world junior championships in Canada later this month set another new Irish junior record when he won the 400m hurdles in 51.52 secs.