Dundalk star O’Connor shines at World Athletics Championships Tokyo

Dundalk’s heptathlete Kate O’Connor had a day to remember at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo today as she produced the performance of her life to finish day one of the women’s heptathlon in silver medal position.

After four events, O’Connor sits second overall with 3,906 points, trailing Anna Hall of America, in first on 4,154.

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Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson is just behind in third, 13 points behind the Louth athlete with three events still to go heading into Saturday’s events.

O’Connor produced a string of personal bests as she opened her campaign with a PB in the 100m hurdles, crossing in 13.44 seconds.

She then took part in the high jump, where she cleared a superb 1.86m, another personal record, after narrowly missing out at 1.89m. That leap secured fourth place in her pool and 1,054 precious points.

Her consistency continued in the shot put where her throw of 14.37m was good enough for fifth overall in the event to keep her well in touch with the leaders.

Then, in the final test of the day, the 200m, the 23-year-old delivered again when she stormed to second place in her heat with yet another personal best of 24.07 to move her into the silver medal position.

With the long jump, javelin, and 800m still to come, O’Connor has put herself in the perfect position to secure a medal.

Speaking to RTE Sport after her events, O'Connor said, “Before I came here, I wrote down all my little marks that I wanted to hit.

“I've hit two of them, two of them I didn't hit. The hurdles, I really was going for a 13.3, but managed a 13.4. It was very close, but just not it.

“High jump, I wanted 183, I got 86. The shot was kind of a little bit iffy in training for the last little while, so I just wanted a solid 14-meter throw.

“I managed 14.3, and then there. If I'm being honest, I really wanted a sub-24, but that's just me being greedy and being a competitor. So, I got pretty close there at 0.7. I'm getting there.

“It's been madness. Probably, people at home don't really realise, but we don't even have time to go to the toilet. It's just been go, go, go from one to the next.

“But I'm trying to just think of it, like, as a training day. It's kind of what my training's like at home. Coming into it, I was like, just play to your advantage. This is how you train. Just go out and go from one event to the next.

“Obviously, I PP'd in three of them. So it's been going pretty well. Thankfully, in the high jump, I didn't go do too many madness jumps.

“So it was all pretty solid up until the 86th, about on the third attempt. So, yeah, I think I've kept their heart rate as low as I possibly could.

“We're up early tomorrow. I don't even know what time the long jump's on that, but I'm pretty sure it's early enough. So, we'll get back as quick as we can, eat some dinner, head to bed, and then come back.”