By Brendan O’Brien
Being deprived of the chance to stand on the podium for a major championship by drug cheats must be bad enough, but Rob Heffernan has revealed that his big moment was compromised even further when he was finally awarded a European Championship bronze medal.
The Cork athlete finished fourth in the 20k at the 2010 Europeans in Barcelona and was ultimately upgraded to bronze – over four years later - when the Russian winner Stanislav Emelyanov was banned and stripped of his title due to irregularities in his biological passport.
Heffernan is now poised to earn further delayed recognition with another Russian, Sergey Kirdyapkin, expected to be stripped of his 2012 Olympic 50k gold medal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in Lausanne on Friday.
Heffernan, who also finished fourth in that race in London, would again be handed bronze in that scenario, though it is unclear just when public confirmation of the decision will emerge. It may be days, but it could be weeks, too.
“I've gone through it already, getting a medal from Barcelona,” said Heffernan on the looming Kirdyapkin decision. “And my name was spelled wrong on the medal, just to rub salt in the wound. It was spelled 'Hefferman', I think.
"The moment is gone,” he added, “obviously. Not only for me, but it's gone for the tens of thousands of people who were watching me out there and who were watching the race back home. But that's life. What can you do?”
It would still be a huge moment in his life, no matter how belated or diluted. For now, it is the uncertainty that is killing him. Every piece of logic suggests he will be upgraded again, but there is always that doubt.
“I think there's a part of my brain that's thinking, 'I'm definitely going to get it',” he explained on Thursday morning at a function for sponsors Nissan. “And then there's a part of me going, 'just give me the medal and I'm going to run away before they take it back off me'.”
Relief will probably be the strongest emotion.
He’s smack bang in the middle of a heavy training and racing stretch right now and doesn’t need the distractions. There will be no open-top bus now, no civic reception. There might have been had it been done and dusted by December, which is what he expected.
“I wanted to have the ceremony in December and put it to bed. Me and (his wife) Marion had arguments about it at home. Marion was going, 'you're not to celebrate it at all this year, you celebrate it after Rio'.
“I was like, 'Mar, it's only December. We can celebrate it now and have a night out after it and tie in Christmas with it'. When it didn't happen then I was distraught again. But then afterwards I decided I just needed to completely forget about it.
“I was dreaming about it and it totally consumed my mindset.”
The focus now is firmly on Rio, not London.
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Everyone knew for years that the Russia race-walking operation was rotten to the core, but if Heffernan gives in to bitterness about his lot it won’t be until he hangs up his spikes. He simply can’t think like that. Not now.
“I don't have the time and energy to be thinking about what they're doing in Russia. I train twice a day. I sleep during the day and I have four kids. My young fella is on six or seven teams. My small one is winning national cross-country medals already.
“So I'm missing out on their matches, I'm missing out on their races. It's only the tip of the iceberg. Coming back on the plane, I was reading about the Kenyan scenario and all of the athletes banned there but, again, it's not my business.”
