Brilliant Heffernan returns in style
Recovering from a hamstring injury since last June, he returned from his training camp in Spain on Friday. The Togher AC athlete planned to do a 40km walk as part of his preparations for the world championships in Daegu but it all appeared in jeopardy until week masseur Liam O’Reilly arrived at his training camp.
“I had no intention of competing today,” he said.
“Myself and Liam were out this morning and I just decided to cut the training session by half and come here.
“Three weeks ago I did not think I would be going to Daegu at all. Then Liam came over, worked on me three times a day and we trained through the pain. It was always going to be a risk. I came home 12 days ago and got a couple of injections into my lower back and that alleviated the symptoms on one side and the treatment I got from Liam helped the other side.”
Meanwhile Ferrybank AC’s Thomas Barr put the perfect finishing touch to an amazing season with new national junior and U23 records in the men’s 400m hurdles.
“I came in hoping for a podium position and to get first was just exceptional. I have knocked over half a second off my junior record and I’m delighted with that,” he said.
Older sister, Jessie, made it a unique family double when she won the women’s 400m hurdles in 57.38 seconds. It was the first time a brother and sister won national senior titles on the same day.
“I have qualified for next year’s European championships in Helsinki and who knows what might happen after that?” she said. “Before this season I’d never thought about it but London is definitely in my sights now.”
Fresh from his sensational run in Oodegem, Belgium, earlier in the week when he knocked almost six seconds off his previous best time for 1,500m to his A standard for next year’s Olympic Games as well as the upcoming world championships, Ciaran Ó Lionaird provided fans with a brief opportunity to celebrate his achievement when he finished third in the heats of the men’s 800m.
“I woke up this morning and I was wrecked,” he said.
“I could hardly get out of bed. I didn’t run the 800m to make it easy on myself. I wanted to go out and do a good effort and make it hard on myself. I definitely hurt, probably more than I would have wanted and did not run as fast as I would have wanted but, at the end of the day, this was never the goal.
“I’m happy I got in the workout I needed and I’ll go off now and get ready for the world championships.”
He returns to Tallahassee tomorrow where he will link up with his college coach and training partners to prepare for the world championships and will then go directly to Daegu at the end of the month.
The 800m final was won in style by 18-year-old Mark English from Letterkenny in 1:50.22 with the silver medal going to Brian Kelly (St Abban’s).
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