Robert Heffernan finishes 5th in Swiss 20km race-walking event - Sun 20th Mar 2011

Rob Heffernan of Togher AC got his season off to a solid start by finishing 5th in a high class 20 kms race in Lugano, Switzerland last Sunday. The race was won by Chinese athlete Wang Chin with Rob finishing as the top European in a very impressive 80 minutes 53 seconds, his fastest ever opening to a season over the 20kms distance.

When interviewed after the race, Rob commented...."Initially I was quite disappointed to get beaten, but on reflection its a good opening to the season, and of course its an Olympic qualifying time, so its handy to have that out of the way"

Men
1 Zhen Wang (China) 1:18:36
2 Yafei Zhu (China) 1:18:37
3 Ding Chen (China) 1:19:38
4 Hassanine Sebei (Tunisia) 1:20:19
5 Robert Heffernan (Ireland) 1:20:53
6 Nazar Kovalenko (Ukraine) 1:21:33
7 Petr Trofimov (Russia) 1:21:47
8 Bertrand Moulinet (France) 1:21:49

The full results can be seen HERE