Kate O’Connor has secured her silver medal in the heptathlon on the penultimate night of the World Championships in Tokyo, also securing her place in Irish athletics history in the process.
It was another typically brave and determined effort by the 24-year-old from Dundalk. Going into the last of the seven events, the 800m, O’Connor only needed to run close to her personal best of 2:10.46 to seal the silver medal and her spot on the podium among the best all-round women athletes in the world.
Despite nursing a slight knee strain sustained in the long jump earlier on Saturday, she once again improved her best to 2:09.56 – her tally of 6,714 points smashing her own Irish record set in July.
[ In pictures: Kate O’Connor’s heptathlon medal bid at World ChampionshipsOpens in new window ]
Anna Hall from the US won the gold medal on 6,888 after leading the way from the second event, and coming to Tokyo ranked number one in the world this year.
But all that stood in the way of the podium for O’Connor were two laps of Japan’s National Stadium. She’d produced her fourth personal best, from the first six events, in the javelin just over two hours before, although there was strapping on her right knee at that point, the slight injury sustained in the long jump in the morning session.
Ireland’s Kate O’Connor celebrates after winning the silver medal in heptathlon. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire
Remarkably there was a tie for third between Taliyah Brooks of the United States and defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Britain.
Indeed O’Connor made history on several fronts. She becomes only the sixth Irish athlete to win a medal on the World Championships stage, the seventh Irish medal won in all – and the first Irish athlete to win an outdoor multi-event medal.
Starting with Eamonn Coghlan’s gold in the 5,000m in the inaugural championships in Helsinki in 1983, Sonia O’Sullivan also won 1,500m silver in 1993, then 5,000m gold in 1995, and they were the last Irish medals one on the track.
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.
For O’Connor, her father and coach Michael also watching closely from the stand, it continued her fast rise to the top of the women’s multi-event.
Kate O’Connor reacts after her first javelin throw, a new personal best. Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
O’Connor had come to Tokyo in the form on her life, following her two 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 upgrading 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 gold medal at the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr, Germany in July, where she improved her own Irish record to 6,487 points – before smashing that again in Tokyo.
O’Connor had moved clear in the silver medal position after the javelin throw, with only the 800m to come. In the sixth of the seven events, O’Connor once again improved her lifetime best to 53.06 metres from 52.92. She passed on her third throw, saving all her energy for the 800m to ensure she sealed that silver medal.
She had briefly dropped to fourth after her first event on Saturday, the long jump, not her strongest event.
Last year, O’Connor also become Ireland’s first representative in the Olympic heptathlon, finishing 14th, but she’s now operating on a different level, coming to Tokyo firmly believing she could compete with the very best in the world.
And she’s only getting started, this remember being her first appearance on the outdoor World Championships stage, and she’s already on the podium.