Kate O’Connor makes history winning silver in heptathlon at World Championships
Kate O’Connor celebrates her silver medal win in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Picture: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
She will always be the first. History is now in Kate O’Connor’s hands – a superb, shining silver medal proudly around her neck. And it’s hers forever.
After a near-flawless two days at the Japan National Stadium, the 24-year-old Dundalk athlete became the first Irish athlete to win a multi-events medal at a global outdoor championship, taking second place in the heptathlon in Tokyo on Saturday.
She racked up a remarkable 6,714 points to finish second behind US star Anna Hall (6,888), smashing her previous national record of 6,487.
After a season in which she continually reached new levels, O’Connor has now scaled a peak few in Irish athletics have ever achieved – and no one in this event.
O’Connor also ended Ireland’s lengthy medal drought in track and field at the highest level. Since the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Ireland had gone 18 consecutive global outdoor championships without a medal in athletics, and 12 years without a World Championships medal of any kind – dating back to Rob Heffernan’s race walk gold in 2013.
But now that drought has ended and, as good as this was, it may just be the beginning.
O’Connor had already collected three medals this year: pentathlon bronze at the European Indoors, silver at the World Indoors, and heptathlon gold at the World University Games. But this was on another level, defeating both the reigning world and Olympic champions as she etched her name among the immortals of Irish sport.
On Friday, she started the heptathlon in explosive fashion, clocking a huge personal best of 13.44 in the 100m hurdles. Her Irish teammate Sarah Lavin shared some tips as they trained together at the Irish holding camp in Hong Kong. In the high jump, she again rose to new heights, clearing another PB of 1.86m.
The shot put had worried her in the build-up, but O’Connor came close to her PB when it mattered, throwing 14.37m. She ended day one with another lifetime best in the 200m of 24.07, leaving her second overnight.
Day two began with nerves as she fouled her first long jump attempt, but she steadied herself with 6.17m before extending to 6.22m.
Next came her strongest event, the javelin, where she launched 53.06m on her first attempt, drawing gasps from the crowd. She passed her final throw after sustaining a minor knee injury in the long jump.
All that remained was the exhausting 800m. O’Connor knew she needed to stay within 11 seconds of Johnson-Thompson and five of Taliyah Brooks to secure silver.
She did far more, crossing the line in 2:09.56 – her fifth personal best of the competition. Moments later, the confirmation flashed on the big screen: a world silver medal.
Kate O’Connor: world silver medallist.
Guiding her along the way was her father, Michael, who oversees the team of coaches supporting her across the disciplines. Watching trackside in Tokyo, he told she was “fun to be around” and that he was “so lucky to be involved with her.”
And she, too, is lucky to have him – a coach who has cared for her first as a person while pushing her to the top of the sport.
This moment is hers, but also his. He walked every step with her, from the darkest days to the proudest – when all their hidden toil finally, and fully, came to fruition.
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