Heffernan and English going for final glory at European Athletics Championships in Zurich

There has been a lot of reeling in the years around Zurich this week. Sometimes clinging to the past is the best hope for the future, at least when major championship medals are at stake.

On Tuesday, we had a small gathering for John Treacy, 30 years to the day since he won his Olympic marathon silver medal in Los Angeles. Treacy was typically humbled and yet couldn’t deny the everlasting satisfaction.

Then yesterday morning happened to be exactly one year since Rob Heffernan won his World Championship gold medal in the 50km walk, which at the time, was also 30 years to the day since Eamonn Coghlan won his world title over 5,000m, back in 1983.

That sort of talk does get tiresome, but helps illuminate the fact that in 80 years of the European Championships, Irish athletes have only won 12 medals: five of those belong to Sonia O’Sullivan and another two to Derval O’Rourke.

Today there is an opportunity to win two medals in the same day.

Willing and able

That might sound ambitious and it many ways it is, but there is no reason why Heffernan cannot repeat the gold medal heroics of Moscow last summer, when he lines up for this morning’s 50km walk (8.10am Irish time); later on, Mark English goes in the 800m final (6.55pm), willing and able to take down athletes with weightier reputations.

“Well I wouldn’t be nailed down favourite for this one, no way,” says Heffernan, who is race walking 50km – or just over 31 miles in old money – for the first time since Moscow.

Some of the men he beat that day have walked themselves into the favourite position, especially Mikhail Ryzhov from Russia. Still only 22, Ryzhov won the silver medal behind Heffernan in Moscow, then came out earlier this season with an utterly commanding display to win the World Cup 50km event in Taicang, China.

Indeed Russian walkers filled four of the top five spots that day, and his two team mates here, Ivan Noskov and Aleksandr Yargunkin, look equally capable of winning.

There is also the defending European champion to deal with, Yohann Diniz from France, although at 36 years (actually a few months older than Heffernan) his form has been flattening.

Rafat Augustyn from Poland and Igor Hlavan from the Ukraine, fourth in Moscow, won’t be easily beaten either.

Nonetheless Heffernan has walked faster than anyone else in the field, with both his 3:37:54 when finishing fourth at the London Olympics, and his 3:37:56 when winning in Moscow last summer.

He won’t fear the Russians, as he proved on that occasion, and there is also the added spur of the bronze medal he is now due from the 20km walk at the 2010 European Championships, in Barcelona, thanks to the retrospective banning of then Russian gold medallist Stanislav Emelyanov due to irregularities in his biological passport.

Emelyanov is just the latest name in a long list of Russian race walkers to be caught doping (number 17, in fact), and the favourite for the women’s 20km walk yesterday, Russia’s Anisya Kirdyapkina, was a mysteriously sudden withdrawal.

Won’t be distracted

Anyway, Heffernan won’t be distracted by any of that, nor can he be. “I’ve certainly worked as hard ever, and training has certainly gone as well as ever, if not better,” he says, proof of that coming in last month’s 3km at the Cork City Sports, when although beaten into fourth, he walked two seconds quicker than before Moscow.

Indeed he has pretty much replicated his preparations of 12 months ago, and now it’s all about executing the perfect race. The 2km loop just off Lake Zurich is slightly undulating, which he won’t mind, and the breezy conditions shouldn’t be an issue either.

Heffernan could have found any amount of excuses to by-pass Zurich (a Moscow hangover, a last time-out before Rio, new baby daughter Regan to look after, etc) but has instead raised the bar on his own preparations, because he actually reckons these Europeans will be even more competitive than the World Championships.

“I do think they’re going to be stronger this year, because I’ve watched the Russians, and they’ve been finishing phenomenally fast. But I’ve said it before that I could stop the sport now, hold all the records, feel I’ve done very well. But I don’t want to rest on it either.

Should Heffernan make the medal podium, and the key will be staying in contention for long enough so his strength becomes his strength, then he’ll be on his way to the Letzigrund Stadium later this evening for the medal ceremony.

Not long after that, English will line up for his final, ranked fourth best on times this season, but after progressing as one of the fastest losers from Wednesday’s semi-finals, the 21 year-old from Donegal knows that tactics will play a far greater part than times.

“I’ve had the full day of rest to help me rejuvenate,” he says. “It’s my first senior final. All I can do is try to execute my best race plan again. They’re all class acts, a few very seasoned runners. The stress is gone for me, after making the final, and it’s not about going out to do the best I can.”

The man to beat is surely Pierre-Ambroise Bosse from France – or the “Boss”, as he insists on being called, after dropping the accent from his surname. Still only 22, Bosse ran 1:42.53 in Monaco last month, a French record, and fourth fastest in European history.

Polish duo Marcin Lewandowki and Adam Kszczot are brilliantly fast finishers, but if English runs smart he mightn’t be far from snatching bronze.

English has already reeled in some years by becoming the first Irish 800m finalist since 1998 when James McIlroy, cousin of golfer, finished a close fourth. Now comes the chance for one or both athletes to write this day into that medal winning past.