LAST UPDATE
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8 hrs ago

KATE O’CONNOR HAS won a bronze medal at the world indoor championships in Poland.

The gold medal was won by Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter, with American Anna Hall taking silver. O’Connor won silver in this event last year, and so becomes only the third Irish athlete to win medals at two editions of these championships, following Marcus O’Sullivan and Frank O’Mara. 

O’Connor was in the silver medal position going into the final event, the 800 metres, and in spite of a new PB of 2:10.26, Hall’s victory in the race bumped O’Connor down to the bronze position. O’Connor needed to finish within 2.5 seconds of Hall to cling onto silver, but Hall’s championship record run left O’Connor trailing by almost four seconds. 

Her overall points tally of 4839 is a new national record, and would have been enough for the gold medal last year. 

“I came here with very high expectations and although I maybe didn’t meet them, I’m coming away a world bronze medallist and I really can’t complain with that”, said O’Connor after the event. “I think it’s probably a good thing that I am walking away thinking I could do a little better, but ultimately I’m delighted.

“After opening my season so well at the national championships, I really hoped to come here and do something extraordinary. I’ve had a couple of health issues since nationals and I wouldn’t say that training has gone 100%, so what I did today probably showed that. What’s amazing is that a sub-par day still gets me a medal and I’m really excited to build on this for the outdoor season.

“My plan is to do the Commonwealth Games and European Championships. I’ll open at the Commonwealths, and then the Europeans are the main aim for me. I want to try and win gold. It’s going to be a tough competition, but if you don’t go in with the mindset to win gold, you’re never going to do it. I’m going to work really hard for the next four or five months and put myself in the position to win that gold.”

O’Connor opened the day with a 8.23 in the 60m hurdles – just 0.02 off her PB – and then registered a season’s best of 1.81 in the high jump. A 14.70 PB followed in the shot put, while a 6.38 in the long jump kept her in second place going into the finale event. 

Today’s achievement maintains O’Connor’s momentum off the back of a phenomenal 2025, in which she won silver in this event and followed it with bronze in the European indoors and another silver in the world outdoor championships.