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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Dundalk's Kate O’Connor with her silver medal won in the women's pentathlon at the World Indoor Athletics Championships at Nanjing's Cube Gymnasium. Picture by Sportsfile
Dundalk's Kate O’Connor has won Ireland’s first World Indoor Championships medal in 19 years with a stunning silver in the pentathlon in Nanjing, China this afternoon.
The 24-year-old produced a career-best performance as she registered three personal bests across five events, just a fortnight after winning European bronze.
Her achievement marks the first indoor medal for Ireland since Derval O’Rourke’s gold in Moscow back in 2006. O’Connor entered the final event, the 800m, just three points behind American Taliyah Brooks.
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Knowing she had to finish ahead of her rival, O’Connor delivered when it mattered most and took third place in the race crucially beating Brooks to clinch silver.
Finland’s Saga Vanninen secured gold with 4,821 points, while O’Connor finished 79 points behind but held a comfortable 73-point margin over Brooks in third.
The final event was a battle from the start, with O’Connor settling into fourth after some early jostling for position.
She made her move on the third lap and moved into third position at the bell, while Brooks struggled to keep up with the pace.
O’Connor sealed her place on the podium with a strong final lap. Her campaign began in the early hours with the 60m hurdles, where she clocked a personal best of 8.30 seconds.
She followed that up with another lifetime best in the shot put as she threw 14.64m. In the high jump, she matched the best mark of 1.81m alongside American Timara Chapman.
The long jump saw further improvement, with O’Connor leaping to successive PBs of 6.30m and 6.32m before fouling her third attempt.
She entered the 800m in third place but knew she had a chance to move up, and she executed the race plan to perfection.
Since an indoor event in Tallaght last month, followed by the European and World Championships, O’Connor has posted nine personal bests across 10 events.
With the indoor season now wrapped up, attention will turn to the heptathlon, which includes the javelin and 200m.
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