Kate O’Connor produced a composed final 800 metres at the European Championships in Birmingham on Saturday to secure Ireland’s second gold of the championships, finishing with a national record total of 6,751 points.
O’Connor, 25 and born in Newry, held a lead of 51 points over Dutch rival Emma Oosterwegel heading into the last event. O’Connor needed to stay within 3.4 seconds of Oosterwegel over the two laps, and she managed that with room to spare. Oosterwegel won the race in 2:10.87, while O’Connor crossed third behind Italy’s Sveva Gerevini in 2:11.74.
That margin left O’Connor top of the standings on 6,751 points. Oosterwegel took silver with 6,713 and the Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter claimed bronze on 6,664. It marked O’Connor’s second major title in a matter of weeks after Commonwealth Games gold for Northern Ireland in July, adding to a silver at last year’s World Championships.
“A couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have thought this would happen to me,” O’Connor told RTE Sport. “It’s been a long two years. I know there’s been medals [won], but there is an increase in pressure with every competition, so each has been different to try and navigate that and this competition has been no different. It’s been difficult from start to finish and I didn’t have it easy for a second.
“This year has been really tough from outside – my granny dies earlier this year and I don’t think I give my dad enough credit, but it hit home for him and the way he turned up to training day-in and day-out…
“This is my dream, but it’s his dream too and I have to dedicate this medal to my granny because she was both of our biggest fans and would have been jumping for joy if she was here.”
O’Connor had entered day two in third place after four events, 42 points behind overnight leader Adrianna Sulek-Schubert of Poland. She set personal bests of 13.30 seconds in the 100m hurdles and 23.79 in the 200m on Friday, equalled her best high jump of 1.86m and threw 13.96m in the shot put.
On Saturday morning she improved her long jump best to 6.55m and recorded a javelin throw of 50.16m, taking her overall total to 5,812 points. That put her 51 points ahead of Oosterwegel, with Dokter third, while Sulek-Schubert slipped to seventh after a disappointing start to the day.
The Dundalk St Gerard’s AC athlete then managed the decisive 800m. O’Connor led early, was overtaken by Oosterwegel but stayed on her shoulder as Gerevini made a late charge. Oosterwegel won the race, but O’Connor remained within a second, enough to claim gold.
“That was the most nerve-racking 800 of my life,” O’Connor said. “I had a job to do and I know I’ve had quite a few jobs to do over these last few days – some I’ve executed and some I haven’t. I was so nervous before that run, but when I hear cheers like that for me [from the Irish support] going around those two laps, there was no way I was going to let that gold medal slip through my fingers. I did want to win the race, but with 50 metres to go I knew I had enough in me to stay within the three seconds and I just wanted to leave here injury-free and with a gold medal around my neck.”
Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished last in the first 800m heat and placed 21st overall. The 33-year-old Olympic silver medallist had competed only once since winning bronze at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo, in a shot put event in Loughborough in May. The 2019 and 2023 world champion entered Saturday in 16th, 324 points off the pace, and could not climb higher.
“It is obviously far from my best,” Johnson-Thompson told BBC Sport. “Not the competition I would have wanted, but in a way it is. I finished. As a heptathlete it is not easy to come into a competition not in shape. You can’t get knocked out in a heat and go home. It was important to me that I finished. I wanted to do it for them [coaching team and physiotherapist] as we worked so hard to be here. I have been coming here since English schools. I have been coming here a long time and I have been an athlete for a long time. It has been great to experience the stadium.”
Her British teammate Jade O’Dowda finished 13th with 6,191 points after placing fifth in the first 800m heat.
Ireland also celebrated a bronze in the men’s 1500m through Andrew Coscoran. The Dubliner dropped to seventh at one stage but found another kick to charge into third in 3:36.24, his first major outdoor medal, edging Britain’s Jake Heyward into fourth. Stefan Nillessen of the Netherlands won gold and Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom took silver.
“That’s a product of a lot of work over the years,” Coscoran told RTE Sport. “A lot of strength work, a lot of speed work – it eventually paid off. I’ve been working so hard for this for so long.”
O’Connor’s victory delivered Ireland’s second gold of the championships and capped an emotional period for the athlete, who dedicated the medal to her late grandmother and credited her father’s daily support.
