Rob Heffernan still the main Irish medal hope

Robert Heffernan believes he is in with a “fighting chance” of defending his World 50km Race Walk title when he toes the line at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing next week.

The championships start this morning, and run until August 30, with Mark English getting the Irish underway in the early hours of this morning in the 800m heats.

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) is the other Irish competitor on day one of the championships in the heats of the 400m hurdles (11:35am Irish time) with four to qualify automatically from each heat.