Rob Heffernan will have to wait a little longer to find out whether he will receive a bronze medal for the 50km Walk at the London Olympics as a decision on Sergey Kirdyapkin's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will be made known in a few days time.
Kirdyapkin was banned for three years by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency last January and is now in danger of losing the gold medal he won in 2012.
It was expected that the panel of arbitrators would make their decision known on the appeals of Kirdyapkin and other Russian athletes today, but a decision from CAS states that "the panel of arbitrators in charge of these matters will issue a decision for each appeal in a few days."
If Kirdyapkin's appeal fails, Heffernan would be promoted from fourth to third
Speaking to RTÉ Sport earlier this week, the Cork athlete is refusing to dwell on the heartache of his fourth-placed finish at London 2012.
"Hopefully it will be sorted out ASAP and we can all move on but as regards having big celebrations about it pre-Rio, I don’t think so.
“My performance in London was my best performance ever and that was due to the support I got from the crowd.
"There was tens of thousands of Irish people on the course on the day. My heart rates during the race were the highest ever for a 50k. I think I went most of the race on complete adrenaline.
“It’s not only disappointing for me – the Irish public missed out on a medal and I dreamt of winning a medal but I knew on that day there was nothing else I could do. It would have been like a child throwing his toys out of the cot, I had to be happy with my fourth because I gave the best performance. As it turned out it was a medal-winning performance."
