Borchin takes gold as Heffernan finishes 15th

There was no joy for Corkman Robert Heffernan in this afternoon's 20km walk at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Heffernan finished 15th after a gruelling race through the streets of the German capital in 27-degree heat. His time of 1 hour, 22mins and 9secs was a season's best.

The Togher clubman came into the race as a medal hopeful, having claimed top ten finishes in both the 2007 Worlds and last year's Olympics.

He looked comfortable up to the halfway point, keeping pace with the lead group.

Norway's Erik Tisse took the field through the 5km mark in 20mins, and a 13th-placed Heffernan was only 26 seconds adrift when Italian Giorgio Rubino led through 10km.

But with 5km to go, the early leaders had been overhauled as Russia's Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin moved comfortably to the front.

The current holder of four Irish senior walk records, Heffernan tried valiantly to keep in touch but Borchin had made the decisive break.

The 22-year-old Russian star got the better of China's Hao Wang over the closing stages to take gold in 1 hour, 18mins and 41secs, with Wang (1:19.06) and Mexico's Eder Sanchez (1:19.22) completing the podium places.