The only secret to any sort of success in the heptathlon is to take each event as it comes. Few athletes understand that better right now than Kate O’Connor, this approach already winning her the complete set of championships medals so far this year.
It started with her breakthrough indoor performances in the pentathlon back in March when, just 12 days apart, O’Connor won the bronze medal in the European Indoor Championships, then upgraded to silver on the World Indoor stage.
They were the first senior medals won by any Irish athlete in a multi-event, and O’Connor then made another breakthrough in the heptathlon, winning the gold medal at the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr, Germany in July, were she also improved her own Irish record to 6,487 points.
The switch from the pentathlon indoors (five events spread across one day) to the heptathlon outdoors (seven events spread across two days) involves the addition of the 200m and the javelin, the latter being O’Connor’s favourite event.
Last year, O’Connor also become Ireland’s first representative in the Olympic heptathlon, but the 24-year-old from Dundalk is now operating on a different level, believing she can compete with the very best in the world.
Her Irish record of 6,487 points ranks her fifth highest so far this season, but Olympic champion Nafi Thiam from Belgium and Britain’s World champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson have yet to compete this season.
Kate O’Connor, from Dundalk in Louth. Photograph: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
O’Connor will get an early test against those two in her opening event, drawn in the same first heat of the 100m hurdles; the high jump, shot put, and 200m are also lined up on Friday. The javelin is the second event on Saturday, in between the long jump and 800m, at which point the medal chase will be clear.
“At the start of the year, I gave myself a couple of goals, and I broke them multiple times during indoors,” O’Connor said earlier this season. “My first barrier [in the heptathlon] is to break 6,500. With multi-events, it is just taking it one event at a time, and if I could get myself to the javelin with pretty good scores, then it’s all to play for. We’ve done a lot of work on my 200m this year, I’ve got a lot quicker. So I’m really excited to run a 200m and see what I can do.”
Since her indoor success, there have been other changes in her life: she recently signed a sponsorship deal with Adidas, with her father and coach Michael now also acting as her agent. She’s also poised to go full-time now that her master’s in communications and public relations at Ulster University is complete.
What is certain is that O’Connor will relish the level of competition in Tokyo, affording her another test against some of the best multi-event women of all-time.
“In previous years, we’ve gone to championships and I’ve looked up to those girls, where now it’s a little bit more like I want to turn up and put it up to the girls. I think my indoor season has put me in the bracket [where] I will definitely be up there. I think it’ll take another couple of years to be challenging for the top spot, and that’s ultimately my goal.”
At the World University Games, she set a personal best of 24.33 seconds in the 200m, before ensuring the gold medal with another best of 2:10.46 in the 800m. Her consistency across all seven events is now her strength, which will make for a fascinating two days and nights inside the National Stadium.
In the men’s 5,000m heats on Friday, Andrew Coscoran also returns to the track, two days after finishing 12th in the 1,500m final, needing to finish in the top eight to make another final. Darragh McElhinney also goes in heat two, with Irish record hold Brian Fay in heat one.
Friday in Tokyo (all times Irish)
9.33am: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon 100m hurdles
10.20am: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon high jump
12.0pm: Brian Fay, men’s 5000m heat 1
12.19pm: Andrew Coscoran, Darragh McElhinney, men’s 5000m heat 2
12.30pm: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon shot put
1.38pm: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon 200m