She will always be the first. History is now in Kate O’Connor’s hands – a superb, shining silver medal proudly draped around her neck. And it’s hers forever.
After a near-flawless two days at the Japan National Stadium, the 24-year-old Dundalk athlete became the first Irish athlete ever to win a multi-events medal at a global outdoor championship, O’Connor taking second place in the heptathlon in Tokyo on Saturday.
She racked up a remarkable 6714 points to finish behind US star Anna Hall (6888), obliterating her previous national record of 6487. After a season in which she continually ascended to a new level, blossoming into all she could be, O’Connor has now summited a peak that very few in Irish athletics ever scaled – and no one in this specific realm.
“It’s just insane,” she said. “Words can’t describe how I feel, the year I’ve had. Indoors was a complete dream and I really wanted to show I could carry that into outdoors. It’s a really special time.”
O’Connor also ended a lengthy medal drought for the Irish at her sport’s top table. Since the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Ireland had gone 18 straight global outdoor championships without a medal in a track or field discipline, and it’s 12 years since they won a medal of any kind at the World Championships – going back to Rob Heffernan’s race walk gold in 2013.
But now that drought has ended and, as good as this was, it could just be the beginning.
O’Connor had already bagged three medals this year: pentathlon bronze at the European Indoors, silver at the World Indoors and heptathlon gold at the World University Games. But this was on an entirely different level, O’Connor defeating both the reigning world champion and also the reigning Olympic champion as she etched her name among the immortals of Irish athletics.
“I’m so glad I could represent my country and win global medals,” she said. “My expectations for myself changed this year, and they’ve changed again now. I’ve set myself up really well for the next three years leading up to the Olympics.”
On Friday, she started the heptathlon in explosive fashion, clocking a huge personal best of 13.44 in the 100m hurdles, her Irish teammate Sarah Lavin passing on some useful tips as they trained together at the Irish holding camp in Hong Kong. In the high jump that followed, she again rose to a new level – literally – as she cleared another PB of 1.86m.
The shot put had been giving her stress on the build-up, blighted by inconsistency in training, but O’Connor wasn’t far off her PB when it mattered most, throwing 14.37m. She rounded off day one with another lifetime best over 200m of 24.07, leaving her second in the standings overnight.
FINAL PUSH; Kate O’Connor of Ireland, second from right, competing in the women’s heptathlon 800m during day eight of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Day two saw her again hit the ground running. O’Connor had a few nervous minutes after fouling the first of her three attempts, but then jumped a decent 6.17m in round two and extended to 6.22m with her final effort.
Next up was the javelin, her forte, and she unleashed all kinds of fury with that right arm, sending it a whopping 53.06m with her first attempt, drawing gasps from the crowd at the Japan National Stadium. She didn’t improve on her second attempt and, having picked up a knee injury in the long jump, she wisely chose to pass her final attempt. That injury had threatened her participation in the final two events.
“I wasn’t really able to run, I wasn’t able to go up and down stairs,” she said. “It was pure grit and determination and want for a medal that I managed to pull myself through. I never was going to settle for a bronze; I was always going to fight 100% to the line, sore knee or not.” In the concluding 800m, that was exactly what she did, O’Connor emptying the tank in the most exhaustive, extraordinary fashion, knowing she just needed to finish within 11 seconds of Johnson-Thompson and within five seconds of Taliyah Brooks and silver would be hers.
In the end, she did far more than that, crossing the line in 2:09.56, making it five personal bests out of seven events. There and then, she knew. Moments later, she saw the confirmation on the big screen, confirming something she’d long dreamed of, something she spent many, many years working towards.
Kate O’Connor: world silver medallist.
“This year has been madness, I’m on a little bit of a roll and getting used to winning medals. You can bet that I’ll be back next year and looking to win some more.”
Kate O’Connor after her world silver pic.twitter.com/GLdUd82SgU
— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) September 20, 2025
“People don’t understand the amount of work that I’ve put in behind the scenes,” she said. “I have a team around me and they don’t just support me as an athlete, they love me as a person. There’s times my mind is full of doubt but with people like that around, they fill you with what you need to be filled with.”
Steering the high-performance ship is her father, Michael, her lead coach among a number of others who help her across various disciplines. He grew emotional as he talked about his star protege.
“It just seems there’s been so many fantastic days, I don’t know when it’s going to stop,” he said. “What can I say about this girl? She’s incredible.” They form quite the partnership – Michael being a coach who has first and foremost looked out for his daughter as a person while simultaneously pushing her towards the top of the world. It’s a delicate balance that’s fiendishly difficult to strike.
This moment is hers, first and foremost, but it’s also his. After all, he’d walked each step of this path alongside her, offering the shoulder to cry on during her darkest days – and there were many.
He was there too six years in Boras, Sweden, where O’Connor announced her talent on the international stage by winning Ireland’s first major multi-events medal – a silver at the European U-20s. There were many rough days in the years since, O’Connor missing the Olympics in 2021 and the Europeans the following year with injury, but she never strayed off course.
“I always have believed I could do it but it’s one thing believing and another actually going out and doing it,” she said. “I didn’t think it’d come around as quickly as it has, but I’m getting very used to winning medals and I don’t really want to give that up. You can bet next year I’ll be back and looking to win some more.”
AloJapan.com