{"id":73875,"date":"2025-09-19T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T18:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73875\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T18:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T18:30:11","slug":"kate-oconnor-and-cian-mcphillips-look-to-turn-big-dreams-into-medals-at-world-championships-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/73875\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate O\u2019Connor and Cian McPhillips look to turn big dreams into medals at World Championships \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s too late to manage any expectations now as the penultimate night at the World Championships<\/a> in Tokyo has turned into a series of dreams for Irish athletics.<\/p>\n

In one, Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

In the other, Cian McPhillips<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Those medal dreams could be realised within just over an hour. O\u2019Connor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0In pictures: Kate O\u2019Connor moves into silver medal position Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the year of dreams so far, with the two medals I won indoors,\u201d she said after improving her lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles, high jump and 200m, and holding her ground in the shot put. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been really trying to be present in the moment with everything I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Kate O\u2019Connor in action in the 100m hurdles. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been go-go-go, the nerves are up and down and all over the place. But I\u2019ve kept the heart rate as low as I could. We\u2019ve still got a long way to go in the competition, but I\u2019ll come back fighting for every point that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish medals won on the World Championships stage have been few and far between over the years. Starting with Eamonn Coghlan\u2019s gold in the 5,000m in the inaugural championships in Helsinki in 1983, only six Irish medals have been won, by five different athletes.<\/p>\n

Sonia O\u2019Sullivan<\/a> won 1,500m silver in 1993, then 5,000m gold in 1995. The last three medals have come in the race walks, Gillian O\u2019Sullivan winning 20km silver in 2003, Olive Loughnane promoted to 20km gold in 2009 after Russia\u2019s Olga Kaniskina was banned for doping, before Rob Heffernan won the 50km gold in Moscow in 2013.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor 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\u2019s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the defending World champion, in third on 3,893.<\/p>\n

Three-time Olympic champion, Nafi Thiam of Belgium, is sixth with 3,818 points, ahead of the long jump, then the javelin \u2013 O\u2019Connor\u2019s favourite event \u2013 and the 800m. O\u2019Connor 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Connor is still in medal contention going into the 800m then a podium place is unquestionably within her reach.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Cian McPhillips celebrates winning the semi-final as he crosses the finish line to set a new national record. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working towards that for a long time, I just didn\u2019t really think it was going to come this year,\u201d he said, his time also taking the Irish record from Mark English<\/a>, who just missed out on making the final. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go for it now, see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve 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\u2019s unquestionably within reach of the podium too.<\/p>\n

The heats of the women\u2019s 4x400m relay on Saturday (noon Irish time) will feature the remaining Irish interest in Tokyo. Once again without Rhasidat Adeleke<\/a>, they\u2019re not ranked to make the top-eight, but can still dream too.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, in the heats of the men\u2019s 5,000m, Darragh McElhinney came closest to making Saturday\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Saturday, September 20th<\/b><\/p>\n

3.30am<\/b>\u00a0Kate O\u2019Connor \u2013 Long Jump \u2013 Women\u2019s Heptathlon<\/p>\n

11am<\/b>\u00a0Kate O\u2019Connor \u2013 Javelin \u2013 Women\u2019s Heptathlon<\/p>\n

12pm<\/b>\u00a0Women\u2019s 4x400m Relay \u2013 Heats<\/p>\n

1.11pm<\/b>\u00a0Kate O\u2019Connor \u2013 800m \u2013 Women\u2019s Heptathlon<\/p>\n

2.22pm<\/b>\u00a0Cian McPhillips \u2013 Men\u2019s 800m Final<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s too late to manage any expectations now as the penultimate night at the World Championships in Tokyo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,47527,18,13,14,6,19,17,10889,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,9715],"class_list":{"0":"post-73875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cian-mcphillips","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-kate-o-connor","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world-athletics-championships"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73875","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=73875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}