It’s too late to manage any expectations now as the penultimate night at the World Championships in Tokyo has turned into a series of dreams for Irish athletics.
In one, Kate O’Connor has put herself in clear contention for a medal in the heptathlon, sitting in second position going into the last three events. After setting three lifetime bests in her opening four events on Friday, the possibility for the 24-year-old from Dundalk is already palpable.
In the other, Cian McPhillips goes into the eight-man 800 metres final as the joint-fastest qualifier in the history of the World Championships. He faces men of far weightier reputations, only so far the 23-year-old from Longford has been utterly undaunted.
Those medal dreams could be realised within just over an hour. O’Connor’s last event in the heptathlon also happens to be in the 800m, starting at 1.11pm Irish time, before McPhillips takes to the track for his two-lap showdown at 2.22pm.
RM Block
[ In pictures: Kate O’Connor moves into silver medal position Opens in new window ]
O’Connor has been in this position before, twice winning medals in the five-event pentathlon on the European (bronze) and World indoor (silver) stage back in March, before winning heptathlon gold at the World University Games.
“I’ve had the year of dreams so far, with the two medals I won indoors,” she said after improving her lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles, high jump and 200m, and holding her ground in the shot put. “But I’ve been really trying to be present in the moment with everything I’m doing.
“It’s just been go-go-go, the nerves are up and down and all over the place. But I’ve kept the heart rate as low as I could. We’ve still got a long way to go in the competition, but I’ll come back fighting for every point that I can.”
Irish medals won on the World Championships stage have been few and far between over the years. Starting with Eamonn Coghlan’s gold in the 5,000m in the inaugural championships in Helsinki in 1983, only six Irish medals have been won, by five different athletes.
Sonia O’Sullivan won 1,500m silver in 1993, then 5,000m gold in 1995. The last three medals have come in the race walks, Gillian O’Sullivan winning 20km silver in 2003, Olive Loughnane promoted to 20km gold in 2009 after Russia’s Olga Kaniskina was banned for doping, before Rob Heffernan won the 50km gold in Moscow in 2013.
O’Connor is on course to smash her own Irish record, sitting ahead of two of the best heptathletes of all-time, with her 3,906 points. Anna Hall of the United States is leading the way on 4,154, with Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the defending World champion, in third on 3,893.
Three-time Olympic champion, Nafi Thiam of Belgium, is sixth with 3,818 points, ahead of the long jump, then the javelin – O’Connor’s favourite event – and the 800m. O’Connor clocked that third lifetime best of 24.07 seconds in the 200 metres, the fourth and final event on day one, to move from the bronze medal position to silver going into Saturday.
She also cleared a brilliant 1.86m in the high jump, her father and coach Michael shouting instructions from the stands, after blazing a 13.44-seconds in the 100m hurdles. Johnson-Thompson will undoubtedly finish strong, Thiam too, but if O’Connor is still in medal contention going into the 800m then a podium place is unquestionably within her reach.
Then the attention turns to McPhillips, who has already enjoyed a dream series of firsts in Tokyo. The first Irish athlete to make the 800m final, his 1:43.18 on Thursday was the joint fastest semi-final winning time in World Championship history and would have won the gold medal in the last two editions.
“I’ve been working towards that for a long time, I just didn’t really think it was going to come this year,” he said, his time also taking the Irish record from Mark English, who just missed out on making the final. “I’m just going to go for it now, see what happens.”
Indeed McPhillips has nothing to lose, not with three of the best 800m men in the world around him, including defending champion Marco Arop from Canada, Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi from Kenya, and Olympic bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati from Algeria.
They’ve all run sub 1:42, but times mean little in a final like this. If McPhillips can run even close to the tactical masterclass he produced in his heat and semi-final he’s unquestionably within reach of the podium too.
The heats of the women’s 4x400m relay on Saturday (noon Irish time) will feature the remaining Irish interest in Tokyo. Once again without Rhasidat Adeleke, they’re not ranked to make the top-eight, but can still dream too.
Earlier on Friday, in the heats of the men’s 5,000m, Darragh McElhinney came closest to making Saturday’s final with an excellent effort in the second heat, missing out in 10th place by just half a second, running 13:42.56, as defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway claiming the last qualifying spot in eighth.
Andrew Coscoran was back on the track two days after running the 1,500m final, finishing 19th in 13:56.95. In the first heat, Brian Fay finished 17th in 13:31.12.
Saturday, September 20th
3.30am Kate O’Connor – Long Jump – Women’s Heptathlon
11am Kate O’Connor – Javelin – Women’s Heptathlon
12pm Women’s 4x400m Relay – Heats
1.11pm Kate O’Connor – 800m – Women’s Heptathlon
2.22pm Cian McPhillips – Men’s 800m Final
