Athlete of the Year Kate O'Connor has sights set on 'bigger and better things'

As this awards season offers well-earned reminders of the magnificence of her 2025 season, she’s training her sights firmly on 2026, a year that could throw up many more medal opportunities.

Wed, 26 Nov, 2025 - 19:34

Cathal Dennehy

The high has been long-lasting, but Kate O’Connor is keeping her feet firmly on the ground.

As this awards season offers well-earned reminders of the magnificence of her 2025 season, she’s training her sights firmly on 2026, a year that could throw up many more medal opportunities.

The 24-year-old was named Athlete of the Year at the 123.ie National Athletics Awards in Santry on Wednesday evening after a year in which she won medals at every championship she contested: silver at the World Championships in Tokyo, gold at the World University Games, silver at the World Indoors and bronze at the European Indoors.

“To win four major medals is something I could never have dreamt of at the start of the year, and to break the barriers I’ve broken as well – it’s been insane,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to top in the future, but I have my sights set on bigger and better things. I’m back into training now.”

O’Connor took four weeks off after her world silver, allowing the knee injury she sustained in Tokyo a proper chance to heal, then did two weeks of introductory work before resuming her usual base training.

“The main goal for me is by January to feel really confident in my knee again,” she said. “We’re doing everything we can to make it as strong as possible. That injury happened because my body wasn’t fully there with the things I was doing.”

The first big thing on her “hit list” in 2026 is the World Indoors in Poland in March, with the Commonwealth Games and Europeans her chief targets outdoors. She may or may not take in an individual event or two on the road to Poland.

“Part of me is thinking we’ll go straight there,” she said. “But if I’m not 100% ready and I don’t feel like I can win a medal, then I’m not going to be there.”

O’Connor said the last two months have been “really busy, but good” and she knows things are different now after the year it’s been.

“There’s a lot more wants and pulls now that I’ve won a medal, but it’s been fun navigating it,” she says. “It has been really enjoyable, but it’s tough to say no and it’s something I’ve learned to do. But maybe it’s the athlete in me: I’ve almost parked it and I’m ready to move on to the next thing. I’m looking forward to next year and coming out and seeing what I can do.”

Elsewhere, Cian McPhillips was crowned Track Athlete of the Year after a breakthrough season that saw him finish fourth in the world 800m final in Tokyo, setting Irish records in the semi-final and final.

After a fortnight off, he has been back in hard training since and will run his first race since Tokyo at next month’s European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, where a medal looks possible in the mixed relay.

“It’s going very well, we’re very happy with the way it’s going,” he said of his recent training. “It’s nice just putting month on month, back to back, and I’m way ahead of where I was this time last year.”

Derval O’Rourke was the latest inductee into the Irish Athletics Hall of Fame, the three-time Olympian receiving just recognition for a career that saw her amass a world indoor title, two European outdoor silvers and two European Indoor bronze medals, along with a fourth-place finish in the 2009 world outdoor final.

Fionnuala McCormack was named Endurance Athlete of the Year following another stellar year where the Wicklow woman clocked a 2:23:46 marathon PB in Valencia and secured top-10 finishes at the World Championships and New York City Marathon.

Conor Kelly was named U-20 Athlete of the Year after a season highlighted by gold in the 400m at the European U20s along with three Irish U-20 400m records and a World Championships debut in Tokyo.

Raheny stalwart Dick Hooper was the recipient of a special recognition award, while Joe Doonan – longtime coach of Catherina McKiernan – received the award for services to coaching.

123.ie National Athletics Award Winners 2025:

Hall of Fame: Derval O’Rourke

Athlete of the Year: Kate O’Connor

Lifetime Services to Athletics: Cyril Smyth

Endurance Athlete of the Year: Fionnuala McCormack

U-20 Athlete of the Year: Conor Kelly

U-23 Athlete of the Year: Nicola Tuthill

Track Athlete of the Year: Cian McPhillips

Field & Multi Event Athlete of the Year: Kate O’Connor

Team of the Year: Men’s 4x100m Relay (Michael Farrelly, Sean Aigboboh, Marcus Lawler, Israel Olatunde, Bori Akinola)

Inspirational Performance on Irish Soil: Cian McPhillips (Morton Games)

Special Recognition Award: Dick Hooper