Thanks to a spectacular javelin throw in the penultimate event, Northern Ireland’s Kate O’Connor won the heptathlon silver medal in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham following a brilliant series of performances over the two days.
O’Connor (21) set personal bests in the opening 100m hurdles and 200m on day one, those runs coming either side of solid high jump and shot put marks which meant O’Connor went into day two second behind defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson from England.
O’Connor dropped to fifth after the long jump in the first event on day two, before rocketing back into medal contention with the best overall throw in the javelin, 51.14 metres, putting her on 5337 points, behind the lead of 5469.
Her fourth-place finish in the final event, the 800m, sealed her silver medal, scoring a season best of 6233 points, gold going to Johnson-Thompson with her 6377 points.
O’Connor, born in Newry and living in Dundalk, set a personal best of 13.74 in the opening 100m hurdles before clearing 1.78m in the high jump which left her fourth at that stage on 1968 points.
