Rob Heffernan now an ‘Olympic medalist in waiting’

Cork athlete Rob Heffernan is hoping to hear shortly that he has been awarded an Olympic Bronze medal for the Men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2012 London Olympics.

Heffernan finished fourth in the race; while the winner, Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin, won the gold medal in an Olympic record-breaking time.

Kirdyapkin is just one of a number of Russian athletes who have since been investigated for doping violations.

He has been retrospectively suspended for other times between 2009 and 2012 and is expected to be stripped of the gold medal.

That would see Heffernan upgraded to a bronze medal.

He tweeted this afternoon saying: “official news of my Olympic bronze could be on the way #mixedemotions.”

Official News of my Olympic bronze could be on the way #mixedemotions https://t.co/tOfVl9IFQb

— Rob Heffernan OLY (@RM_Heffernan) November 9, 2015

A commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has released

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The WADA report also called on the IAAF to suspend Russia from competition.

Heffernan’s Twitter profile now describes him as: “World Champion, European medalist, Olympic medalist in waiting”.