Kate O’Connor has won a gold medal in the women’s heptathlon at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

The 25-year-old – who took home silver at last year’s World Championships – finished the final event, the 800m race, in third place in a time of 2:11.74 which was enough to see her take gold overall.

“When I heard cheers like that for me going around those two laps, there was no way I was going to let that gold medal slip through my fingers,” O’Connor told RTÉ Sport after the race.

“I was very conscious that there were two Dutch girls on my outside. Tactics really do come into play there so I had to make sure I got myself into a safe spot. I know some of the girls aren’t afraid to bump and barge. I really wanted to make sure I got my spot and no one was going to ram me out of there and then it was a case of settling in and following the tactics we had set out.”

“When I heard cheers like that for me going around those two laps, there was no way I was going to let that gold medal slip through my fingers.”

Kate O’Connor talks to David Gillick after securing European gold in the heptathlon.

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It is Ireland’s third medal of the Championships, following on from Mark English’s gold and Rhasidat Adeleke’s silver.

It looked like she might have the legs to win the 800m race but she said after that she was conscious of coming out of the championship injury-free and was happy to concentrate on what she needed.

“I did really want to win that (800m) race but then I suppose with 50m to go I knew I had it in me to stay within the three seconds and I just wanted to cruise home and make sure I leave her injury-free and with a gold medal around my neck,” she said.

She also paid credit to her father Michael O’Connor, who also is her coach, and her late grandmother who passed away earlier this year.

“This year has been really tough for me personally,” she said. “My Granny died during the year and I don’t think I give my Dad enough credit but it really hit home for him big time and the way he still turned up to training day-in, day-out because this is my dream but it’s also a dream for him too and I think I have to dedicate this medal to my Granny because she was both of our biggest fans and she would have been jumping for joy if she was here to see this.”

With a points tally of 6751, she broke yet another national record.

She started the race with a 51 point lead, meaning Netherlands’ Emma Oosterwegel would have needed a three-and-a-half second winning margin over O’Connor, approximately 20 metres, in order to steal the top spot.

KATE O’CONNOR IS A EUROPEAN GOLD MEDALLIST!

Not only that, she’s beaten the Irish national record.

She has well and truly written herself into the history books.

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It stemmed from a stellar morning from O’Connor, who jumped a new personal best in the long jump at 6.55m, before a brilliant javelin throw of 50.16m.

This overturned a 42 point deficit into a 51 point lead before the final event.

In day one, O’Connor clocked a time of 13.30 in the hurdles, and followed that up with a stellar showing in the high jump, leaping over the mark of 1.86m for the first time in her career.

An uninspiring first two shot puts left her behind the chasing pack, but an impressive final throw of 13.96m helped her move up the leaderboard.

The 25-year-old then breezed through the 200m sprint at a time of 23.79, paving the path for Saturday’s success.

With the win, O’Connor now adds European outdoor gold to previous gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Games, and a World silver medal from 2025.