 Heffernan wins the World Championships of 2013 in Moscow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 28 February 1978 Cork, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 58 kg (128 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Marian Heffernan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Racewalking | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 20 km race walk, 50 km race walk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 20 km: 1:19:22 50 km: 3:37:54 [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Robert Heffernan (born 28 February 1978) is an Irish race walker.
At the 2000 Olympics he finished in 28th place in the 20 km walk, and at the 2004 Olympics he was disqualified. [2]
At the 2008 Olympic Games he improved, coming eighth in the 20 km walk. His wife Marian Andrews is also national women's 400 metres champion and was on the Irish women's team that finished 4th in the European indoors. On 27 July 2010, Heffernan won the bronze medal in the 2010 European Athletics Championships in the 20 kilometres walk, posting a time of 1:21:00 (achieved retrospectively in 2014 after Russian Stanislav Emelyanov was found to have committed an anti-doping violation). He also finished 4th in the 50km walk in a national record time of 3:45:30, a notable achievement just three days after the 20 km event.
At the 2012 Olympics, Heffernan finished ninth in the 20km race. A week later he finished fourth in the 50km, finishing seven minutes faster than the previous national record. His achievements in London were the top two performances for the Irish Athletics team at the 2012 Olympics. [3]
In early 2015, it was revealed that a number of Russian male and female champion racewalkers were under investigation for doping violations including the winner of the 50 km walk in London, Sergey Kirdyapkin. The athlete was retrospectively suspended during specific periods between 2009 and 2012 by his federation (RUSADA) and had most of his results annulled —including world titles, but not his Olympic title.
The IAAF were unhappy with the verdict made by the Russian Athletics federation and made it clear that they would be taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) believing that the ban should include his participation in the London Olympics. In a statement, the IAAF disagreed with the selective disqualification of results applied by RUSADA.
On 24 March 2016, the court of Arbitration for Sport favoured the IAAF and Heffernan was upgraded to Olympic Bronze. [4] [5] He received his bronze medal in November 2016. [6]
On 14 August 2013, Heffernan finished first in the 2013 World Championships in Athletics 50km event in Moscow, finishing over a minute clear of the silver medal position with a winning time of 3:37:56. [7] [8] [9] Speaking after the race Heffernan said "Its surreal, it's just a great feeling," he said. "When I came into the stadium it just felt like an out of body experience. It's hard to take it all in at the moment. I'm delighted." [10] [11] The winning time was the fastest time in the world in 2013 by more than three minutes. [12] [13]
In November 2022, Heffernan was announced as performance coach of the Cork senior footballers, working under the management of John Cleary. [14]
Heffernan is married to Marian Heffernan, a 400M Olympian, and lives with his wife and family in Cork city. He has written an autobiography of his life called Walking Tall in 2016. [15] His son Cathal Heffernan plays football for Newcastle United's U21 squad and was captain of the Republic of Ireland under-17 national squad. [16] [17] [18]
Olive Loughnane is an Irish retired racewalker. A four-times Olympian, she is the 2009 world gold medalist in the 20 km walk.
Sergey Alexandrovich Kirdyapkin is a Russian race walker. He was stripped of the 2012 Olympic gold medal in the 50K walk, by decision of the Court of Arbitration published 24 March 2016, due to doping violations. Due to these doping violations, he was given a three-year-and-two-month ban from athletic competition, backdated to 15 October 2012, allowing him time to still qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, Russia did not compete in athletics at the 2016 Olympics, due to the suspension of the governing body, the IAAF, due to widespread doping.
Alex Schwazer, OMRI, is an Italian race walker. He was the 2008 Olympic 50k walk champion.
Marco De Luca is an Italian race walker. His best results at International level are 7th place at 2009 World Championships and 6th at 2006 European Championships and 2010 European Championships.
Valeriy Viktorovich Borchin is a race walker from Russia who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal and was World champion over the 20 km distance. His World Championship was retroactively stripped in 2015 due to doping.
Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina is a Russian coach and former race walker. She won the silver medal in the 20 km walk at the 2006 European Championships, the gold medal at the 2007 World Championships, and the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also won the 20 km walk at the 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, setting a Championship record of 1:25:42. She was disqualified from several years of competition due to doping.
Vladimir Alekseevich Kanaykin is a Russian race walker.
Jared Tallent is an Australian race walker and Olympic gold medallist in the 50 km walk from London in 2012. He is a four-time Olympic medallist, three-time World Championship medallist and holds the current Olympic record in the 50 km walk.
Tatyana Sergeyevna Chernova is a Russian former heptathlete.
The Women's 20 km Walk event at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held throughout the city of Berlin on August 16, beginning and ending at the Brandenburg Gate.
The men's 20 kilometres walk at the 2010 European Athletics Championships was held on the streets of Barcelona on 27 July.
The athletics competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held during the last 10 days of the Games, on 3–12 August. Track and field events took place at the Olympic Stadium in east London. The road events, however, started and finished on The Mall in central London.
The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held on 11 August on a route along The Mall and Constitution Hill. The event was marred by the disqualification of all three Russian athletes due to doping violations.
The 50 kilometre race walk was an Olympic athletics event that first appeared in 1932 and made its final Olympic appearance in 2021. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight until the raised leg passes it.
The men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium and Moscow streets on 14 August.
Viktor Mikhailovich Chegin is a banned Russian racewalking coach. He was responsible for training all three athletes who swept the medals at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics: Olga Kaniskina, Valeriy Borchin and Sergey Kirdyapkin. His athletes Elena Lashmanova and Sergey Kirdyapkin won gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Kaniskina earning a silver medal. Former and banned world record holders Lashmanova, Denis Nizhegorodov and Sergey Morozov are all coached by Chegin.
Andrey Viktorovich Ruzavin is a Russian racewalking athlete who competes over the 20 kilometres race walk distance. He has a personal best of 1:17:47 hours for the distance, which ranks him in the top twenty of all time. Ruzavin was the silver medallist in the 20 km walk at the 2009 Summer Universiade and a bronze medallist at the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup.
Evan Dunfee is a Canadian race walker and Olympian. An Olympic and World medallist, Dunfee first set the Canadian record in the 50 kilometres race walk at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he placed fourth. He went on to win bronze medals at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Summer Olympics, both of those the last time the 50 km was to be featured as an event.
The 2016 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships was the 27th edition of the global team racewalking competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held in Rome, Italy from 7 to 8 May 2016. It was the first edition of the tournament under its new name, having previously been known as the IAAF World Race Walking Cup since 1989.
Cathal Séan Heffernan Andrews is an Irish footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Newcastle United.
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