ATHLETICS: IAN O'RIORDANtalks to Robert Heffernan, who again went so close to winning a European bronze, in the 50 km walk yesterday, after finishing in the same position in the 20km

HE SAYS we’re a bit obsessed with winning medals, and maybe we are. But there’s no denying Robert Heffernan came splendidly close once again to winning a European bronze here yesterday – his fourth place finish in the gruelling 50km walk coming just three days after his similar position in the 20km event. Even though we felt disappointed for him, Heffernan quickly corrected us.

“All I said to myself starting out was that I wanted to be competitive, and it was, brilliant,” he said. “People are a bit obsessed with medals at home. The most important thing for me is to perform. Maybe today’s performance could be a gold medal in the future. And that’s very good for me, from where I’m at. I’m getting closer, I’m getting better, and that’s great.”

Indeed Heffernan appeared remarkably fresh after his incredible effort. “Well no,” he corrected us again. “It’s probably adrenalin. I’m wrecked . . . but delighted.”

Still Heffernan found himself with plenty of consolation for missing out on a medal. His time of three hours, 45 minutes and 30 seconds knocked an incredible five minutes off his own Irish record, which he’d set back in March in what was then his debut at the distance.

Truth is the 32-year-old from Cork always considered himself a 20km specialist, and had come to Barcelona trained specifically for the shorter event.

His tactics here reflected that, as he held back considerably over the opening dozen or so loops of the small 1km circuit, around Ciutadella Parc in the heart of the old city.

Settling into a group in around 16th position, Heffernan gradually moved through the field and in the end finished faster than anyone – though just not fast enough to close down the long-term leader, Yohann Diniz of France, who defended his title in terrific style, clocking 3:40.37.

Poland’s Grzegorz Sudol took silver in 3:42.24 and Russia’s Sergey Bakulin bronze in 3:43.26 – both in personal bests. Ireland’s Colin Griffin also finished 11th in a season best of 3:57.58.

“Who knows if I went earlier?” asked Heffernan.

“After doing the 20km the other day I had to be very careful, because I didn’t know how I was going to recover. After I went back and looked at my training, I knew I had a lot of work done but I had to be careful at the start because I did a 50km early on in the year, went through 40km maybe five minutes faster than today, then I blew up. That experience stood to me.”

The plan now is the experience will stand to him up to and including the London Olympics, where suddenly his chances are looking a lot brighter: “Definitely it’s going to give me massive confidence moving forward. Maybe I can double again in London, I don’t know. But it’s definitely great practice for London. But I had it in the back of my mind, the 50km, ever since I was younger. Without any planning I’ve done real good 30kms and 35kms in training, and I love the competition. I really enjoyed today.”

Naturally, it wasn’t an entirely solo effort, and Heffernan handed some of the credit to his coach, Ivonne Cassin, wife of former Irish international 50km walker Jeff Cassin – and of course his own wife, Marian Heffernan, who competes this morning as part of the women’s 4x400-metre relay team. He also brought his own personal masseur out here, Liam O’Reilly, and said without him there was no way he could have attempted both events.

“Ivonne is a real expert with 50km,” he explained. “She’s very scientific about everything, so she went over my drinks with me last night. I had a different drink strategy for every section of the race. Different drinks up to 10km. Different mixes from 10km to 23km, and from 35km to 50km. Everything was different and I never ran out of fuel.

“When the leaders first came past me I felt had to go with them. I said to Ivonne should I go and she said yes. So I went, I committed, and when I got into that group I loved it. And I was spurred on a bit from Tuesday, because I was very disappointed, not with the position but that I was outfoxed at the end by the three boys, and should have held back a bit more there too. In the end I was at my limit the other day too, in the 20km, so looking back now it was a brilliant result as well. A brilliant week.”

Two brilliant results, indeed.