On a cool, wet evening, no different to Cork during many of those hard training sessions, Robert Heffernan took another leap forward in championship race walking.

And with his eighth-place finish at the 20km event in Munich, he underlined his potential as one of Ireland's top medal hopes for the future.

At 24, Heffernan is still learning about competing at the top level of a complex event, but last night he was more certain than ever that some day a medal could be his.

Spain's Francisco Fernandez, the man who lowered the world record earlier this year, picked up the gold as expected in one hour 18 minutes, 37 seconds - good enough to improve the championship record in the process.

Heffernan was always in the mix. He was in second at 5km, fourth at 10km and still fourth at 15km. Only the late surges of stronger and older men denied him a medal.

"I'm still thrilled with that," he said afterwards, showing none of the ill-effects or exhaustion that followed his 14th place finish at the World Championships last summer.

"It's definitely another stepping stone to bigger things and I'm more confident than ever now that I'll get that medal someday."

He was just 30 seconds behind bronze, finishing in 1:21.10.

Juan Manuel Molina gave Spain two out of the three medals when taking third in 1:20:36, with the Russian Vladimir Andreyev taking silver in 1:19.56.

"To be honest, I didn't feel that great up to three of four kilometres," added Heffernan.

"I got a warning early on too and that knocked me a bit as well. But I did feel strong towards the end. And I feel now like I'm getting there."

Eight place in Europe, in an event typically dominated by Europeans, is certainly something Heffernan can build on.

But strong Irish interest in the Munich walks doesn't end yet and this morning Gillian O'Sullivan is thinking about a similar sort of result when she goes in the women's 20km.

Already this season O'Sullivan has produced the 11th-fastest time in Europe as well as the new world record over 5,000 metres on the track and she will be disappointed with anything less than a top-10 finish.

It's been 40 years since Ireland last had any presence in a European Championship 400 metres final, when Maeve Kyle finished sixth in Belgrade.

Come tomorrow in Munich, there is strong chance of two more - Paul McKee and Karen Shinkins.

McKee was untroubled in getting through his opening heat yesterday morning, taking second in 46.03 seconds behind the 45.79 of Germany's Ingo Schultz.

"Dead on," said McKee, who made his big breakthrough this summer by lowering the Irish record to 45.58 seconds.

"I just wanted to get my seat in the next round and hopefully go that wee bit quicker then. It felt a little bit harder than it should up to 300 metres, but then it was first thing in the morning for me."

The Belfast athlete is out again later this evening in the first of two semi-finals, with qualification for Thursday's final going to the top four in each race.

Ireland's two other 400-metre entrants failed to get beyond their heats. David McCarthy, second youngest athlete of the entire championships at 19, ran his best to take seventh in 47.30, but a long season is starting to get the better of him. Rob Daly came a little closer, taking fifth in 46.67.

Shinkins, meanwhile, was spared heats yesterday morning and the 22 entrants were instead split into three semi-finals.

With only two assured of qualification for the final (and the two fastest losers). Shinkins will need to be at her season's best of 51.48 seconds from the start to reach Thursday's final.

Drawn in lane three, Shinkins will be in good company. Russia's Olesya Zykina, fastest in Europe this season with 50.46 seconds, is out in lane eight.

For the last two editions of these championships, Ireland have had a finalist over 1,500 metres but that won't be the case in Munich.

James Nolan, though, has had a troubled season and eighth place in his semi-final last night was not that far below expectations.

Nolan positioned himself for an attack on the leaders with 300 metres to go, but the extra gear wasn't there and he never got close to one of the four automatic qualifying places.

As gold medal favourite, Mehdi Baala of France cruised across the line in 3:46.71, Nolan was still searching for a possible place as a fastest loser, but his 3:48:48 didn't come close.

Reyes Estevez led home the next semi-final in 3:40.47 and all four fastest losers came from the second race.

Adrienne McIvor also failed to get out of the 800 metre heats when finishing in sixth place.

Her season's best of 2:02.28 would have brought her close, but the best she could produce on the night was 2:05.01, with victory going to Portugal's Nedia Semedo in 2:02.80.