O'Connor and English headline Irish World Indoors team

Kate O'Connor of Dundalk St. Gerard's AC, Louth, with her gold medal after winning the women's long jump during day two of the 123.ie National Senior Indoor Championships. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

World indoor and outdoor silver medallist Kate O’Connor and five-time European medallist Mark English will headline a strong Irish team for the upcoming World Indoor Championships.

The pair were named by Athletics Ireland in an initial squad selection for the event which takes place in Toruń, Kujawy Pomorze, Poland from March 20th-22nd.

The announcement confirms the selection of athletes with A standards, while athletes qualifying via ranking position and having achieved the Athletics Ireland ‘B’ Standard will be confirmed after World Athletics produces its final list of qualifiers on Wednesday.

O’Connor made history at these championships last year in Nanjing, China, by winning Ireland’s first medal since 2006, claiming silver in the Women’s Pentathlon. The 25-year-old went onto win silver in the Heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last September.

The Dundalk star returned to competitive action at the recent 123.ie National Senior Indoor Championships setting two new personal bests in the 60m Hurdles (8.21) and Long Jump (6.50m) indicating that she is in strong form ahead of her first multi-event competition of the year in Poland.

English has also been in excellent form this season, lowering his own Irish indoor 800m record on two occasions. The 32-year-old from Donegal ran 1:44.23 at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava, Czechia in early February before returning to altitude for a training camp. He also ran an Irish indoor 600m record in January, clocking 1:15.80 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin.

Andrew Coscoran and Nick Griggs are both ranked highly in the Men’s 3000m, with the pair having ran the third and fifth fastest times in the world for the event this year. The duo will compete in a straight 15-man final in Toruń.

Sarah Lavin is a consistent championship performer who finished fifth in the final of her event, the Women’s 60m Hurdles, at these championships in Glasgow two years ago. 

Bori Akinola and Lauren Roy will race over 60m. Akinola broke Israel Olatunde’s national record for the event last month at the World Indoor Tour Gold meet in Belgrade, Serbia, with a 6.54 second clocking, illustrating that he’s in the form of his life travelling to Poland. 

Maeve O’Neill will make her senior Irish international debut in Poland. 

Ciara Neville, Emma Moore, James Gormley and Elizabeth Ndudi, have achieved the Athletics Ireland ‘B’ Standard and are provisionally selected pending confirmation of their qualification status by World Athletics.