Ireland’s Kate O’Connor clinched a historic silver medal in the women’s heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Saturday (20).
It is the first time an Irish athlete has won a multi-event medal in the history of the championships, and she becomes only the sixth Irish athlete ever to medal in any event.
Over two days, the 24-year-old produced the performance of her life to set a national record of 6714 points, finishing second to the USA’s Anna Hall, who claimed gold.
Five personal bests
Following her day-one heroics—where she set lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles (13.14), high jump (1.86m), and 200m (24.07), as well as a strong shot put of 14.37m—O’Connor carried her momentum into day two.
She opened with a solid 6.22m in the long jump, just 10cm shy of her personal best. In the javelin, she recorded another lifetime best with 53.06m, before rounding off the competition with 2:09.56 in the 800m—her fifth personal best of the weekend.
The result caps a superb year for O’Connor, who also won bronze at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in the pentathlon earlier this year.
There was also a third World Athletics Championships medal for Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, champion in 2019 and 2023, who shared bronze with the USA’s Taliyah Brooks after both totalled 6581 points over the two days of competition.
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"Very important for me"
"I knew that I was always going to be in with a shot of a medal. But it's the one thing being in with a shot and another actually going out and doing it," said O'Connor.
"I'm so proud of my team who get me to that start line over and over again, and fill me with as much confidence as they do. I got three medals at big competitions this year, but this was very important for me.
"I had a great indoor season and badly wanted to show that I could carry that form outdoors. I have always been a better heptathlete than pentathlete, so it was weird for me to have done so well indoors.
"I want a bit of time to keep chipping away and hopefully I can give Anna (Hall) a little bit competition at the Olympics. I think I have put myself in a good position to work towards that goal. I set five personal bests over two competitions days here.
"To do it under pressure can be a pretty tough load to carry. That was down to my team. They just managed to keep me calm. I need to improve a bit in the shot put, get more consistent. I also hurt my knee during the long jump today, so for the rest of the day I was just kind of trying to get through it."
"Better memories" for Johnson-Thompson
"Honestly, I thought it was a joke at first. I was like, 'Why are we both showing up as bronze on the screen?' I didn't really celebrate until they put the medal around my neck," said Johnson-Thompson on sharing bronze with Brooks.
"I've never seen it happen before and I've been around for a long time, but I'm so happy one of us didn't lose by one point because that would have been heartbreaking. My experiences in Tokyo from 2021 and 2025 are like chalk and cheese.
"This stadium holds a lot of sad memories for me form 2021 - of being so far away from home, of walking out of the stadium on crutches and not being able to finish day two. I've kept that experience with me for a long time. To finish the 200m on day one this time and come back and actually walk away with a medal means the absolute world.
"Now I have better memories of this stadium. It's such a wonderful place, a magical place and I'm so happy that it was a happy end. I've done every championships since 2013. I've not missed one.
"You add another four Olympics to that and Europeans and Commonwealth Games - I've done this for so long now and it doesn't get any easier. I think working with different coaches is the secret to my longevity and working on different things.
"I think it has given me a fresh input. I think my love for the heptathlon and my drive to always be the best and keep working on myself is key as well. Every time I finish a heptathlon I think, 'Never again. But then, I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to stay around as long as I can until I stop being competitive. And I'm still competitive."