{"id":323176,"date":"2026-03-01T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323176\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T09:00:13","slug":"kate-oconnor-smashes-sprint-hurdles-best-behind-national-indoor-champion-sarah-lavin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323176\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate O\u2019Connor smashes sprint hurdles best behind National Indoor champion Sarah Lavin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a> had to bow to the superiority of Sarah Lavin<\/a>, but delighted herself nonetheless when smashing her personal best for the 60 metres hurdles on day one of the National Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n

In her first competitive appearance since winning heptathlon silver at the World Championships last September, O\u2019Connor took on Lavin in the sprint hurdles showdown at the Sport Ireland Arena, clocking 8.21 seconds to win the silver medal \u2013 a significant improvement on her previous best of 8.30.<\/p>\n

In her specialists event, Lavin duly took the win in 8.07, her eighth consecutive indoor title, and 19th senior title overall. Still, O\u2019Connor punched the air when seeing her time, notably faster than the 8.30 she clocked a year ago during her silver medal pentathlon run at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.<\/p>\n

Using this event as part of her preparations for next month\u2019s World Indoor Championships in Poland, O\u2019Connor has clearly wintered well. The 25-year-old will also compete in the individual long jump on Sunday afternoon, eying up another personal best there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to come here and just experience the atmosphere,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cAt National outdoors last year, I didn\u2019t actually compete because it was so close to the World Championships [in Tokyo], and I\u2019d just done a heptathlon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned up and got to enjoy the atmosphere, but it\u2019s different when you\u2019re actually competing, I\u2019d a great time out there, really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Women'sWomen’s 60m hurdles medallists, Sarah Lavin of Emerald AC, Limerick, gold, centre, Kate O’Connor of Dundalk St Gerards AC, Louth, left, silver, and Orlaith Mannion of South Galway AC, right, bronze. Photograph: Sam Barnes\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

Both Lavin and O\u2019Connor eased through their heats earlier on Saturday afternoon, O\u2019Connor clocking 8.36 in his first race; drawn alongside each other for the final, Lavin blasted out of the blocks and was never threatened, although O\u2019Connor was highly impressive in the chase, the Dundalk athlete rewarded with her new lifetime best.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor also paid tribute to the 31-year-old Lavin for pushing her to her new lifetime best: \u201cOh yeah, definitely. My heat was a little bit ropy, but when I stand side-by-side with Sarah, it\u2019s like \u2018right, I better lock in here\u2019. She pushed me on, pushed me to a PB, which was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavin and O\u2019Connor had shared a number of sprint hurdles sessions in the build-up to the World Championships in Tokyo, and the Limerick athlete again enjoyed the presence of the multi-event star.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s is so competitive,\u201d Lavin said of O\u2019Connor. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t just extend to the racing and the competition. She is competitive, who gets to breakfast first, who gets to sleep first. But it\u2019s really good fun, it can be intense when you\u2019re training and at holding camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Nolan defended his men\u2019s 60m hurdles title, the St Laurence O\u2019Toole AC athlete in Carlow clocking a season\u2019s best of 8.03, comfortable ahead of Sean Carmody from Leevale AC (8.19).<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s 200m final also produced an impressive victory for Sophie Becker, the Paris Olympian improving her lifetime best to 23.43 seconds \u2013 her first indoor title over 200m, adding to the two already won over 400m. The Wexford athlete had a previous best of 23.67, bettering that in her heat (23.52), before powering home in the final.<\/p>\n

\"SophieSophie Becker and Aobh Ford. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Becker\u2019s relay partner Sharlene Mawdsley was the fastest qualifier for the women\u2019s 400m final on Sunday, the Tipperary star clocking 52.59.<\/p>\n

Mark Smyth from Raheny Shamrock was also back to his best after a spell of injury, his winning time of 21.11 seconds enough to get the better of Marcus Lawler from Clonliffe Harriers in the men\u2019s 200m final, who win silver in 21.24.<\/p>\n

Several field event titles were also decided on Saturday, a tight contest in the men\u2019s triple jump eventually going the way of David Onwudiwe (Ennis Track AC), his best of 13.96 just 2cm ahead of Darragh Fahy from Loughrea AC.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s high jump, Aoife O\u2019Sullivan from Liscarroll AC got the better of Sommer Lecky from Finn Valley on countback, after both women cleared 1.75m.<\/p>\n

Emma Moore of Galway City Harriers underlined her form in the 800m heats when winning her race in 2:13.46, although Hannah Seagrave from Clonliffe also impressed, winning in 2:08.03. In the absence of Mark English, Cillian Kirwan from Raheny looks poised to win the men\u2019s title, winning his heat in 1:52.33.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kate O\u2019Connor had to bow to the superiority of Sarah Lavin, but delighted herself nonetheless when smashing her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,14940,43,20483,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-323176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-kate-o-connor","tag-news","tag-sarah-lavin","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}