All three Irish medal winners from last Sunday’s blissful half hour of success on the European Indoor stage have now been selected for the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. The event starts on Friday, March 21st.
Kate O’Connor has confirmed her intention to compete for another medal in the pentathlon, having won bronze in Apeldoorn, with Sarah Healy also an automatic qualifier for the women’s 3,000 metres, the event where she won European gold on Sunday. The event in Nanjing will be run as a straight final with no qualifying.
Mark English is also well within the ranking quota for the men’s 800m, with Cian McPhillips also provisionally selected in that event.
Sarah Lavin, fourth in the 60m hurdles in Apeldoorn, is another automatic qualifier, and finished fifth in last year’s World Indoor event in Glasgow. Andrew Coscoran also qualified automatically in the men’s 3,000m and 1,500m.
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Sophie O’Sullivan is also within the ranking quota for the women’s 1,500m, and likely to make the cut when World Athletics confirm the final entries on Wednesday, and while James Gormley is selected for the 3,000m pending his final ranking, it’s highly unlikely he will miss out.
These World Indoor Championships are a sort of bonus competition in 2025: Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, was originally due to host them in 2020, then in 2021, and then again in 2023, only all these dates were cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic regulations in China.
Ireland haven’t won any medal at the World Indoors since Derval O’Rourke struck gold in Moscow in the 60m hurdles back in 2006, and for Kate O’Connor, the opportunity to try for another medal in the pentathlon was one she was never going to turn down.
“The opportunities don’t come around too often,” O’Connor said on Tuesday morning. “The opportunities when [you are] in shape don’t come around too often, so why not go out while you’re enjoying it, while you’re healthy, and grab everything.”
“It’s a really quick turnaround, the timetable is a little bit weird, considering we were the last event at the Europeans, and we’re the first event at the Worlds. It is really quick, and we’ll be heading out now in the next couple of days.
“But it’s another opportunity to go for. I’m in the form of my life, no injuries, thank God, and I’m just really enjoying competing. So we’re kind of just thinking why not, go for it. Have a bit of fun, and after that I’ll take a well deserved break and get ready for outdoors.”
O’Connor had slipped back into fourth position in Apeldoorn going into the final event, the 800m, where she went for broke, powering off the front with one lap to go to ensure enough seconds were gained on Britain’s Jade O’Dowda, winning the event outright in 2:11.42, and earning her bronze overall.
It brought the 24-year-old’s five-event tally to 4,781 points, smashing her Irish record of 4,683 set last month, and moving her into the bronze medal position – with a points tally which would have won gold at the last World Indoors.
“I found myself in second behind the Italian, who has a PB of 2:08, and I was behind her, watching her hair swish, and I thought to myself, if you’re going to run a 2:08, I’m going to run a 2:08 with you.
“So I made the commitment that I was going to stick with her for as long as I could, and be proud of a run. Because if I was going to finish fourth I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I would like something I was extremely proud of, so whenever I felt the chance to overtake her, I didn’t look up once. I was just running for my life.”
Irish team for World Indoor Championships, Nanjing, China
Sarah Healy, women’s 3000m
Sarah Lavin, women’s 60m hurdles
Kate O’Connor, pentathlon
Andrew Coscoran, men’s 1500m, 3000m
*Mark English, men’s 800m
*Cian McPhillips, men’s 800m
*Sophie O’Sullivan, women’s 1500m
*James Gormley, men’s 3000m
(*Pending quota place)
