At 5.30am (Irish time) on Wednesday last. Rob Heffernan lined up for the start of the men’s 50K Walk at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
Three hours and thirty-eight minutes later, after a scintillating performance, the Togher native broke the tape to become Ireland’s third champion at this meet, joining Eamonn Coghlan and Sonia O’Sullivan in an elite achievers’ grouping.
Unfortunately for athletics fans and sports lovers in general RTE Television didn’t broadcast the race and subsequently suffered much heated criticism for the ‘blank’ via the social media.
Given the precarious financial situation that Montrose finds itself in, it was hardly surprising the World Athletics Championships became a victim of its cutbacks.
RTE had broadcast the European and World Cross Country Championships in addition to the National Indoor and Outdoor Championships but a spokesman confirmed the station “could not stretch” to the rights for Moscow, claiming the station had to cut its sports rights budget by 25 per cent.
