Loughnane and Heffernan can lift Irish athletic spirits

Olive Loughnane and Robert Heffernan can today lift spirits towards the end of what has been a poor games for Irish athletes.

Last Saturday Heffernan provided an early lift when he finished ninth in the men’s 20k with the second fastest time of his career and what made that even more exciting was the fact he did it on the training he has been doing for the 50k for the past two years.

A doping scandal has hovered over the race since Beijing winner, Alex Schwazer, tested positive for EPO in a test taken on July 30. He wasn’t at the World Race Walking Cup in Saransk where Sergey Kirdyapkin finished a mere two seconds ahead of fellow Russian Igor Erikhin in 3:38:08.