“I’ve been going for that (record) for a long time,” she said. “I’m in the shape of my life at the moment and to go out and do that here, at a world stage, I’m really happy with that.”
O’Connor, a master’s student in communication and PR at Ulster University, was a heavy favourite going into the event and the Dundalk athlete lived up to that billing. Her tally obliterated her previous Irish heptathlon record of 6297 from 2021 and ranks her fourth in the world this year. It left her a long way clear of silver medallist Szabina Szucs (6081) of Hungary and bronze medallist Emilia Surch of Australia (6068).
It had already been a massive year for O’Connor, who twice smashed the Irish pentathlon record indoors. She won bronze at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands before winning World Indoor silver in Nanjing, China – the first ever medals Ireland had won in the multi-events at that level. She had previously won heptathlon silver at the European U-20 Championships and at the 2022 Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland.
“Now I’ve finally got a gold,” she said. “It’s a great way to start my outdoor season. I’d quite a few highs there but also quite a few lows, so I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks, trying to improve some things and really have them right going into [the World Championships in] Tokyo.”
On Wednesday morning, she made a shaky start in the 100m hurdles, clocking 13.89, some way down on her best of 13.57. But she bounced back with a hugely impressive 1.83m in the high jump, the second highest clearance of her career, before throwing 13.76m in the shot put. She closed the day in superb fashion, smashing her 200m personal best with 24.33, leaving her well clear in the overnight standings.
She started day two in decent fashion with 6.15m in the long jump before throwing an impressive 51.87m in the javelin. “It was a very early start, we were running on very little sleep so to go out and jump what I did, I was pretty happy,” she said. “In the javelin, I’d probably have liked a little bit more but for this time of the season and just getting moving, I’d have 100 per cent taken that before.”
That left her just needing to avoid calamity in the concluding 800m to take gold but, aware that she was on for a huge national record, O’Connor emptied the tank, going through 400m in about 61 seconds and hitting the line in a lifetime best of 2:10.46. “I gave it as much as I possibly could have and to get a PB there, I can’t be sad with that,” she said.
O’Connor is the eighth Irish gold medallist at the World University Games. On the track, Ronnie Delany won over 800m in 1961; Niall Bruton and Sonia O’Sullivan took 1500m glory in 1991; while Thomas Barr won the 400m hurdles in 2015. In swimming, Gary O’Toole won the 200m breaststroke in 1991 and Shane Ryan won the 50m backstroke in 2017, while golfer Danielle McVeigh won individual gold in 2007.
“After indoors, I was kind of put in the category with Derval [O’Rourke] and Sonia and it was madness,” she said. “And for outdoors, to be thrown in that category again, it’s great.”
O’Connor has multiple coaches but overseeing it all is her father, Michael, and many of her loved ones travelled to Germany to see her golden moment. “The support means the world,” she said. “To put on the Irish vest and represent my country, but also my university who’ve looked after me so, so well – it’s a real honour. I had a great time the last two days, and I hope I did everybody proud.”
Meanwhile, Lauren Roy came home fourth in her semi-final of the women’s 200m, clocking 24.07 into a stiff 2.5m/s headwind, her time not enough to advance as a non-automatic qualifier.