Rob Heffernan joins Cork backroom team as performance coach

Olympic bronze medallist Rob Heffernan has joined the Cork football backroom team as performance coach for the 2023 season.

Heffernan's inclusion the set-up was confirmed in a statement by the Cork county board this evening.

He is the latest high-powered addition to John Cleary's set-up, with former Galway manager and two-time All-Ireland winner Kevin Walsh being confirmed as a coach earlier this month.

Ray Keane (MTU/St Finbarr's), Barry Corkery (Éire Óg), James Loughrey (Mallow), and Mícheál Ó Cróinín (Naomh Abán) have all been named as selectors.

Corkman Heffernan represented Ireland in five Olympic Games as a racewalker, between 2000 and 2016, earning a bronze medal in 2012 - being belatedly awarded third spot three years later after Russian winner Sergey Kirdyapkin was stripped of his gold medal and placing for doping violations.

Heffernan also won gold in the 50k at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.