Superb European Bronze for OConnor in Apeldoorn

The 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medalist had hopes of a medal coming into these championships following her NI and Irish record performance set in Tallinn in February. However, with the Tallinn winner and world leader Saga Vanninen as the firm gold medal favourite, and a further four athletes in the field who finished ahead of O’Connor in the Paris Olympics, it wasn’t going to be easy.

The busy day of the Pentathlon began 12 hours before the final event climax with a 6.15am bus to the stadium and a two hour warm up allowing for call room procedures. The early start didn’t dent Kate’s ability for to continue to set new levels for herself this season as she stormed to a new PB in the 60m Hurdles of 8.31, placing her 8th out of the field of 14.

A rollercoaster High Jump event followed with three attempts needed at 1.75m before a first time clearance at 1.78m and another dramatic third time clearance at 1.81m. The Michael O’Connor coached athlete wasn’t finished there and produced the jump of her life to clear  1.84m on her second attempt to move up to third place overall behind Netherlands’ Sofie Doktor and GB & NI’s Jade O’Dowda who won the event with a fantastic 1.87m personal best.

O’Connor surpassed both athletes in the Shot Put with a strong throw of 14.32m, moving up to second in the overall standings with Vanninen taking the lead with a huge 15.56m effort.

Following the Shot, the athletes enjoyed a brief 20 minute fuelling break before entering the call room for the Long Jump, one of the strongest events for Kate’s rivals. All three delivered PB’s or SB’s with Doktor delighting the home crowd with a 6.61m victory, Vanninen  also setting a PB of 6.52m and O’Dowda a strong 6.43m. O’Connor set herself up with a solid performance in round 1 of 6.05m before leaping half a metre further than she did at the Paris Olympics in round 2 with a new Northern Ireland record of 6.27m. After four events, despite an unprecedented three PBs, Kate had dropped to fourth place and looked destined to score one of the highest fourth place finishes in indoor championship history.

Unbeknownst to the Dundalk St Gerards athlete, her two Irish teammates Mark English and Sarah Healy won 800m bronze and 3000m gold respectively while she was in the call room for her final event the 800m at 6.03pm local time. Perhaps inspired by the final session atmosphere in the crowd, needing to take at least 2.5 seconds out of O’Dowda to have a chance at bronze, O’Connor started strongly, opening up a gap ahead of the pack by following the Italian who was the fastest in the field.

After a 400m of 64 seconds O’Dowda had closed the gap to less than a second but a well timed strike for home with 300m to go meant that O’Connor was vying for the lead and stretching the distance ahead of Jade O’Dowda.

Breaking the beam in first place with a new PB of 2:11.42, Kate had no idea if she had done enough to secure the medal and it wasn’t until minutes later that her name flashed up on the board in third place behind Vanninen and Doktor, with a new Northern Irish and Irish record of 4781 points, the 26th best Pentathlon score in the World Athletics all time lists.

McCann, Gormley and Kelly gain valuable experience in Apeldoorn

Earlier in the championships three fast improving NI athletes performed well in their respective events. Conor Kelly (Derry Track Club / Paul Miller)  gained his first senior international cap, aged 17,  running a solid first leg of the Mixed 4x400m final for Ireland where they finished 5th place.

The following Rachel McCann (North Down AC / Ian Neely) ran a superb 400m PB of 53.18 from lane one finishing 4th in her heat.

James Gormley (Carmen Runners / Ben Thomas) also had his senior international debut in the 3000m and ran strong race in a tactical heat finishing 8th (14th over all).

In the final even of the championships Rachel McCann backed up her earlier PB with a 53.20 first leg relay for the Irish Women’s 4x400m that finished 6th in the final.