Rob Heffernan disqualified as athletes prepare for Beijing

Last check-in call for the World Championships in Beijing and all the Irish athletes intending to travel appeared in Santry over the weekend in good spirits and bang on schedule. With the possible exception of Rob Heffernan.

As defending World Champion in the 50km walk, Heffernan knows better than anyone the importance of getting on that plane to Beijing with no excess physical or mental baggage.

So he came to Santry looking to trim the last of both, only to find himself disqualified almost exactly halfway through the 10km walk.

Altitude training

Clearly this wasn’t part of the plan. Although Heffernan, just down from four weeks altitude training in the Atlas Mountains in

Morocco

, wasn’t unduly concerned: he is, after all, preparing for a race five times longer in Beijing, on the road and not the track and, if anything, his own keenness simply got the better of him here.

So, while Heffernan’s training partner Alex Wright walked on for the victory, Heffernan was already looking forward to Beijing: “It’s certainly disappointing I didn’t get to do the second half of the race,” said Heffernan, after three of the five judges independently issued him a third red card, in all cases for lifting, and with that automatic disqualification.

“I’m not worried. I’m 4kg lighter than I was in Cork and the training in Morocco went brilliant. I’ve had two hernia operations since last summer, but everything this year is about Beijing. . . I’m going there as defending champion and I want to defend that title.”

Neither Thomas Barr nor Mark English are talking about medals in Beijing, although they have been eying up a World Championship final.

Barr is still the 10th fastest in the world, with his 48.65 seconds in Rome in early June, yet the Waterford athlete was perfectly content with his winning time here of 49.68, which also earned him a fifth national title in the 400m hurdles. “A good consolidating run, I’d say,” said Barr, smiling, and it’s rare he’s not.

“This was just what I needed going into Beijing. I knew it was a solo race, and just treated like a heat, really, like it would be in Beijing. Each race out there will be like a final, for me, and just means going hell for leather.”

Indeed it will – and the same for English, who’s had a rollercoaster of a summer for a variety of reasons. Here, the UCD medical student looked much closer to his best, winning the 800m in 1:50.94. Declan Murray made him earn the title, running 1:51.04 in second, with Niall Tuohy a close third in 1:51.50.

Beijing marks the first World Championships where qualification can also be decided by athlete quotas as well as times. Ciara Mageean (1,500m) and Kelly Proper (200m) are both safely within the quota for their events, although Mageean is not entirely sure yet whether or not she’ll take up her place.

Standout performance

On the evidence here Mageean probably should, as she moved down to the 800m and delivered the standout performance of the championships – her winning time of 2:02.98 a personal best, effectively run from the front.

“I’m happy with the result here . . . but I’ll have to weigh up all the pros and cons of Beijing. I love representing my country, but given my history of injuries, and my short comeback into the season, I’ll have to see what makes the most logical sense.”

Proper is intent on taking up her place in Beijing in the 200m, and so she should. The swirling wind didn’t help matters here, yet the Waterford woman won comfortably in 23.81 seconds, for national title number 17.

Proper also won the 100m earlier in the afternoon. She also has 19 indoor national titles also to her name.

Two golds

“After I saw the quota list, and realised I was safe enough, I just came here to win my two events,” she said.

Marcus Lawlor also won a double of sprint gold medals, as did Sara Treacy in distance terms (1,500/3,000m steeplechase) while Brian Gregan won an exciting 400m in 46.20, securing one of the relay spots for Beijing, as Ireland’s 4x400 men are also within the quota. In the field, Adam McMullen produced an impressive series in the long jump, with a best of 7.89m, which was unfortunately over the legal wind limit for a new personal best.