Three medals for Ireland, including Sarah Healy gold, on magic evening at Euro Indoors

Mark English won the fifth European medal of his career in the 800m while Kate O'Connor broke new ground for Irish athletics by claiming bronze in the pentathlon.

Sun, 09 Mar, 2025 - 18:08

Cathal Dennehy

It’s been a spectacular final day for the Irish at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, with Sarah Healy powering to gold over 3000m and bronze medals won by Mark English in the 800m and Kate O’Connor in the pentathlon.

Healy executed her race to perfection, patiently biding her time until the last 100m and then attacking race favourite Melissa Courtney-Bryant of Britain off the last bend, Healy edging gold in a tight finish in 8:52.86. Courtney-Bryant came home second in 8:52.92, with Salome Alfonso of Portugal third in 8:53.42.

Healy had struggled at several championships in the past and worked extensively on her psychology in recent years, and she was coolness personified throughout the final as she saved her energy in a cagey race for an all-out kick down the home straight that carried her to glory. She is the first Irish gold medallist at the championships since David Gillick in 2007.

“I’m so happy to do it,” she said. “It’s amazing. To have so many Irish people here made it so special for my first ever medal. The best part is the fact that my parents are here. They’ve seen me sad so many times so that was so nice.

“I knew I had an opportunity to win a medal and a chance to win gold, but I didn’t want to put too much expectation on it. I felt so good the whole way around, I felt amazing, but it was so messy so it was trying to get the space and wait until the last possible moment.”

Shortly before, Mark English won a brilliant bronze in the 800m, the Donegal athlete, who turns 32 later this month, earning his fifth European medal – and his third indoors – with a superb performance that exemplified all of his class and race craft. He unleashed a superb final lap to take bronze in 1:45.46. Gold went to Dutch athlete Samuel Chapple in 1:44.88, with Belgium’s Eliott Crestan taking silver in 1:44.92.

English slotted into fourth place on the first lap, and stayed there as Crestan towed the field through 400m in a swift 51.77. English was demoted to fifth briefly but utilised his vast range of gears to great effect on the final lap to haul himself up to third, adding to the bronze he won at these championships in Glasgow in 2019 and the silver from Prague in 2015.

Sonia O’Sullivan is the only Irish athlete to have won more senior individual medals on the international stage, with 12.

Kate O’Connor broke new ground for Ireland with her bronze, becoming the first ever Irish athlete to win a medal at a senior championships in the multi-events. The Dundalk native, a European U-20 silver medallist in 2019, produced a spectacular effort in the concluding 800m to overhaul Britain’s Jade O’Dowda on the overall standings and lead the field home.

“It’s absolute madness, I can’t believe it,” said O’Connor. “I knew it’d take something special to get into the medals and I was trying to take it one event at a time. After the long jump I was a bit upset, I’d just done four world-class performances and was out of the (top three) which was a bit frustrating. But the plan was to go out and have absolutely no regrets, give it everything I could."

O’Connor enjoyed a remarkable day, setting lifetime bests in four of the five events to obliterate her own Irish pentathlon record with her tally of 4781 points. She started with a PB of 8.31 in the 60m hurdles, followed with a 1.84m high jump PB, then threw 14.32m in the shot put and managed a PB of 6.27m in the long jump. That left her in fourth going into the 800m, and O’Connor knew she needed to beat third-placed O’Dowda by about 2.5 seconds to win a medal.

She built a two-second advantage over the first three laps then went for broke, clocking 2:11.42 to O’Dowda’s 2:15.91 to seal bronze. Finnish star Saga Vanninen took gold with a European U-23 record of 4922 with Dutch star Sofie Dokter second with 4826.

“I just decided halfway round, ‘feck it, I’m going to run as fast as I can and kick as hard as I can.’ With 220 to go, I said, ‘let’s go’. I ran with as much guts as I could and it paid off.”

Coached by her father Michael along with Tom Reynolds, she paid tribute to her support network.

“People don’t realise with multi-events how up and down it can be,” she said. “There’s a lot of injuries and to finally come out on the senior international stage and get a medal is amazing.

“All those girls are professional athletes and I’m just an athlete who’s doing athletics on the side and a master’s at the same time. I’m not able to do it professionally yet, I don’t have a contract, but to step on a podium is a credit to me and my coaches and the team around me.”

Andrew Coscoran made a bold bid to win a medal in the 3000m final, the Dubliner contending for a bronze medal until the final lap, at which point the tank ran dry and he faded to sixth, clocking 7:51.77. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen once again proved a class apart, the Olympic champion completing a double after his earlier success over 1500m.

In the concluding 4x400m women’s relay, the Irish quartet of Rachel McCann, Lauren Cadden, Arlene Crossan and Cliodhna Manning was comprehensively outclassed, coming home sixth in 3:32.72, with Dutch star Femke Bol raising the roof for the home crowd as she brought the curtain down on the championships by anchoring her team to gold in 3:24.34.