Kate O’Connor has become only the third Irishwoman to medal at a World Indoors Championships after securing the silver medal in the pentathlon in Nanjing, China, on Friday. O’Connor joins stellar company: Derval O’Rourke won gold in 2006, Ireland’s last medal at the event, while Sonia O’Sullivan took silver in 1997.
O’Connor improved on her performance of two weeks ago at the European Championships where she secured bronze in an Irish record for the multi-discipline event which involves five events: 60m hurdles, high jump, shot putt, long jump and 800m.
O’Connor has been blazing a trail in the sport for some time. The 24-year-old athlete, who runs for the St Gerard’s club in Dundalk, first came to significant public attention when she won the heptathlon silver medal at the European Under-20 championships in Boras, Sweden, back in 2019.
No Irish woman had ever won a championship medal at any level in the heptathlon, the seven-event discipline demanding tremendous all-round talent and athleticism. The heptathlon is the outdoor version of the multi-event athletics event, with the addition of javelin and a 200m sprint, while the 60m hurdles is over 100m. O’Connor broke the Irish senior record when winning in Sweden as an 18-year-old.
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O’Connor later won silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, representing Northern Ireland, and last summer in Paris became Ireland’s first representative in the Olympic heptathlon, finishing 14th.
Her father Michael has been her coach for most of her career and still oversees much of her training, along with Tom Reynolds. O’Connor is currently dividing her time between Dundalk and Belfast, where she’s completing a master’s in Communications and Public Relations at Ulster University.
After her indoor exploits this spring it remains to be seen where it will take her in the outdoor season, with the World Championships in Tokyo later this year.
