Robert Heffernan of Togher finished a fighting fifth in the men’s 50km race walk in 3:44:17 at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing while the men’s 4x400m relay team set a new national record.
Heffernan was in the thick of the action for much of the 50km walk won by Slovakia’s Matej Toth in 3 hrs 40 mins 32 secs. Australia’s Jared Tallent was second with two Japanese walkers third and fourth. The Russian Alexander Yargunkin was banned from competing a day before the race after failing a doping test for EPO – he joins a list of over 25 disgraced Russian walkers. 
Heffernan was pleased with his fifth place following injury problems and a hernia operation and has no plans to retire. Only with 3km to go did his legs start cramping “Fifth in the world is still very, very solid going into the Olympics,” he said after.
In this toughest of all events, Brendan Boyce of Letterkenny was disqualified and Leevale’s Alex Wright failed to finish.
The Irish men’s 4x400m relay team produced a national record of 3:01.26 to finish 8th in the second heat and 13th overall. USA won in 2:58.13 with Trinidad and Tobago second in 2:58.67 and Jamaica third in 2:58.69.
Clonliffe’s Brian Gregan lead out the team on the first leg in lane 9; he passed on to Brian Murphy of Crusaders before Thomas Barr of Ferrybank took over for an excellent third leg. It was left to Mark English of UCD to bring the team home. Next target is Rio ’16 qualification.
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