Another groundbreaking display by Kate O’Connor has won her the heptathlon gold medal at the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr, Germany.
The 24-year-old was in superb form in all seven events, smashing her own national record on her way to claiming a first multi-event medal for Ireland in the championships.
Already 373 points clear going into the final event, O’Connor saved one of her best performances for last, finishing second in the 800m with a personal best of 2:10.46 to bring her points tally to 6,487.
That significantly improved on her previous record of 6,297 set in 2021, this being her first heptathlon competition since twice breaking new ground in the indoor five-event pentathlon. Earlier this year O’Connor took bronze in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn and followed up with silver in the event at the World indoor stage in Nanjing, China.
RM Block
Relishing the competition once again, the Dundalk woman set the pace on both days. Hungary’s Szabina Szucs claimed the silver medal with 6,081 points while Australia’s Emilia Surch took bronze with 6,068 points, both also personal bests among the 29 competitors.
While gold medals have previously been won by Ireland in swimming and golf, this was only the fifth athletics gold won by an Irish athlete since World University Games were officially inaugurated in 1959. Ronnie Delany won gold over 800m in 1961, Niall Bruton and Sonia O’Sullivan over 1,500m in 1991, and Thomas Barr in the 400m hurdles in 2015.
After setting a personal best of 24.33 seconds in the 200m on Wednesday, O’Connor threw 51.87m in round one of the javelin on Thursday and cleared 6.15m in round one of the long jump.
Only a collapse in the 800m would have denied her gold, and instead she made absolutely sure of it, improving her previous best of 2:11.42.
“European indoors I won bronze, World Indoors I won silver, I’ve finally got a gold, it’s a great way to start my outdoor season,” said O’Connor after Thursday’s triumph.
“To finish off with that 800m, I just gave it as much as I possibly could, and to set a personal best there was great, and a new national record as well, so it’s all coming at once.
“My old national record, I’ve been holding that for a long time, but I’m in the shape of my life. I’ve had the loudest screams the last few days, have had so many family come over to watch me, and to put on the Irish vest to represent my country, but also the University of Ulster, is a real honour,” she added.
An MA student in Communications and PR at Ulster University, O’Connor’s indoor medals were the first senior medals won by any Irish athlete in a multi-event. She had already made a breakthrough in the women’s heptathlon in winning European Under-20 silver in 2019 before becoming Ireland’s first representative in the heptathlon at last year’s Paris Olympics.
The switch from the pentathlon – five events indoors spread across one day – to the heptathlon – seven events outdoors spread across two days – involved the addition of the 200m and the javelin, the latter being O’Connor’s favourite event.
Her next heptathlon will be the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.
