{"id":72599,"date":"2025-09-19T02:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T02:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72599\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T02:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T02:31:10","slug":"kate-oconnor-looks-to-take-next-step-in-her-rise-at-world-championships-in-tokyo-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72599\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate O\u2019Connor looks to take next step in her rise at World Championships in Tokyo \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019Connor<\/a>, this approach already winning her the complete set of championships medals so far this year.<\/p>\n

It started with her breakthrough indoor performances in the pentathlon back in March when, just 12 days apart, O\u2019Connor won the bronze medal in the European Indoor Championships, then upgraded to silver on the World Indoor stage.<\/p>\n

They were the first senior medals won by any Irish athlete in a multi-event, and O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Connor\u2019s favourite event.<\/p>\n

Last year, O\u2019Connor also become Ireland\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Her Irish record of 6,487 points ranks her fifth highest so far this season, but Olympic champion Nafi Thiam from Belgium and Britain\u2019s World champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson have yet to compete this season.<\/p>\n

\"KateKate O’Connor, from Dundalk in Louth. Photograph: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start of the year, I gave myself a couple of goals, and I broke them multiple times during indoors,\u201d O\u2019Connor said earlier this season. \u201cMy 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\u2019s all to play for. We\u2019ve done a lot of work on my 200m this year, I\u2019ve got a lot quicker. So I\u2019m really excited to run a 200m and see what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s also poised to go full-time now that her master\u2019s in communications and public relations at Ulster University is complete.<\/p>\n

What is certain is that O\u2019Connor will relish the level of competition in Tokyo, affording her another test against some of the best multi-event women of all-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous years, we\u2019ve gone to championships and I\u2019ve looked up to those girls, where now it\u2019s 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\u2019ll take another couple of years to be challenging for the top spot, and that\u2019s ultimately my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Friday in Tokyo (all times Irish)<\/b><\/p>\n

9.33am: <\/b>Kate O\u2019Connor, heptathlon 100m hurdles<\/p>\n

10.20am: <\/b>Kate O\u2019Connor, heptathlon high jump<\/p>\n

12.0pm:<\/b> Brian Fay, men\u2019s 5000m heat 1<\/p>\n

12.19pm:<\/b> Andrew Coscoran, Darragh McElhinney, men\u2019s 5000m heat 2<\/p>\n

12.30pm: <\/b>Kate O\u2019Connor, heptathlon shot put<\/p>\n

1.38pm: <\/b>Kate O\u2019Connor, heptathlon 200m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only secret to any sort of success in the heptathlon is to take each event as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[45670,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-72599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andrew-coscoran","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}