Earlier today reports emerged that Rob Heffernan could soon be the proud recipient of an Olympic bronze medal to go along with his World Championship gold. The man who crossed the line first at the 50k walk during London 2012, Sergey Kirdyapkin, has today been suspended by the IAAF following a doping probe.
That led to reports, that Heffernan could be upgraded from his fourth place finish at London 2012 and into the bronze medal position. However, that now looks unlikely thanks to a curious part of Kirdyapkin's suspension. According to the Independent, the Russian's results from June 12 to October 14 2012 will remain despite the fact that results before and after those dates will be annulled.
The Irish Olympic Council are in the process of contacting the IAAF to seek clarification on this matter but there could yet be positive news from the results of today's doping investigations with Olive Loughnane potentially set to be awarded the gold medal from the 20k walk at the 2009 World Championships.
Loughnane finished second in that race to Russia's Olga Kaniskina, but she has been suspended following the same investigation which resulted in Kirdyapkin's suspension. Unlike her Russian counterpart, Kaniskina is set to be provisionally stripped of her medal at the World Championships, thus seeing Loughnane awarded the gold.
