Rob Heffernan eyes firmly on medal

It’s his final shot, and he knows it. Rob Heffernan may have an Olympic bronze medal to his name — at least that’s what the record books say — but he has yet to lay his hands on it.

As a result, the 38-year-old Cork athlete will go to the line with a typically ravenous hunger for the 50km race walk in Rio today. It’s his fifth Olympic Games— almost certainly his last — and he wants to stand on that podium more than ever.

“People go on about the taking part, but it’s not about that,” he said. “Whether I’m going to win or not, I’m always training to win and that’s how I’ve approached it.”

Heffernan arrived in Brazil early last week, bypassing the Athletics Ireland holding camp in Uberlandia and preferring to come straight to the athletes’ village. “I didn’t need to be in there any earlier,” he says. “It’s better going in when all your work is done and when you’re in the taper.”

The last few weeks have seen Heffernan ease back on his training, filling his reserves for the brutal depletion that awaits him when he steps out on the roads on the southern coast of Rio at 12pm midday Irish time today. His training has been as rigorous as ever, up to 180km a week and sessions of up to 40km on any given day.

It’s always hard to tell until the race plays out, but Heffernan hopes his work will get him an immediate spot on the medal rostrum this time around. Four years ago in London, Heffernan crossed the line fourth in the 50km walk, but was upgraded to bronze earlier this year when Russian winner Sergey Kirdyapkin tested positive retroactively.

He could have the medal by now, but he didn’t want it, not just yet. “I want to do it at a time where it’ll be done right and it’ll have an impact on the people at home,” he says. “I wanted it to be a big celebration for sport, at the right time. To do it before the Olympics, you might be taking your eye off the ball and become a bit lax.”

Joining him on the start line in Rio will be teammates Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright, though a top-20 finish may represent the height of their ambition. Heffernan, barring illness or injury, should be in the top six, duking it out over the latter half with some of the heavyweights of his event.

The race favourite is Slovakia’s Matej Toth, the world champion who has recovered from a tibia injury and has the talent to tear the field apart from the start.

However, Australia’s Jarred Tallent — who was recently upgraded to the gold medal from 2012 — is another likely to show his face at the front. Yohann Diniz of France is the world record holder, though his best performances have come in cool conditions, the opposite of what the field will face today, with temperatures climbing into the high 20s during the race.

Heat has never been a problem for Heffernan, who spent much of the year at training camps in Morocco and Spain. Indeed on that rare day when it all came together and Heffernan won the world title in 2013, the sun was high in the sky above Moscow, reducing many of his rivals to cramping wrecks over the latter half of the race.

On his Olympic farewell, Heffernan is hoping for similar carnage today. “I never have a problem getting up for an Olympics and being willing to suffer,” he says. “I want to go out on a high.”