{"id":355550,"date":"2026-03-20T04:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T04:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355550\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T04:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T04:48:15","slug":"majestic-torun-a-worthy-setting-as-kate-oconnor-prepares-to-do-battle-with-the-best-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355550\/","title":{"rendered":"Majestic Torun a worthy setting as Kate O\u2019Connor prepares to do battle with the best \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena sits on the edge of the old walled town of Torun, still one of Poland<\/a>\u2019s most majestic sites along the Vistula River. Here, for the next three days, many of the world\u2019s biggest stars will battle it out for medals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, this event is served up as an appetiser before the bigger ones later in the season. That is not the case this time around.<\/p>\n

With 670 athletes from 110 nations ready for action, these are the only senior global track-and-field championship, indoors or outdoors, of 2026. World Athletics have dreamed up the inaugural World Ultimate Championship, set for three days in Budapest in September, with $10 million (\u20ac8.7 million) in prizemoney. It remains to be seen how well that will be received.<\/p>\n

Torun provides the one global multi-events competition at senior level. Sunday\u2019s pentathlon will be contested by Ireland\u2019s Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a>, although her year does include the European Championships in Birmingham in August. <\/p>\n

Among the Irish athletes to already shift their focus to Birmingham are Cian McPhillips, Sarah Healy and Rhasidat Adeleke, all bypassing Torun. But after her exceptional return of four medals from four competitions last year, O\u2019Connor isn\u2019t thinking about anything less than another podium position here.<\/p>\n

A year on from winning pentathlon silver at the World Indoors in China \u2013 backing that up with another silver in the heptathlon at the World Championships in Japan \u2013 O\u2019Connor has already shown clear signs of improvement. Two lifetime bests in the 60m hurdles<\/a> (8.21 seconds) and the long jump (6.50m) at the National Indoors<\/a> three weeks ago is evidence of that.<\/p>\n

\"KateKate O\u2019Connor found her best form at the National Indoor Championships three weeks ago, leaping to a lifetime best in the long jump. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

On the eve of these championships, World Athletics rolled out some of the sport\u2019s biggest names for a media event, Anna Hall among them. A few months younger than O\u2019Connor \u2013 Hall turns 25 next week \u2013 the US star already has the complete set of world heptathlon medals, but this is her first appearance on the world indoor stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve wanted to do World Indoors for a very long time,\u201d said Hall. Her lifetime best of 5,004 points, set in 2023, is fourth on the world all-time list, notably better than O\u2019Connor\u2019s best of 4,781. O\u2019Connor\u2019s prime motivation will be to close that gap, possibly even test Hall all the way to the gold medal.<\/p>\n

Part of the beauty and essence of any multi-event discipline is that fortunes and failures are so easily flipped. Sometimes, having five events all in one day is even more demanding than the seven-event heptathlon, which is spread over two days.<\/p>\n

What is certain is O\u2019Connor has arrived in Torun in prime condition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I\u2019d been training well. But it\u2019s one thing doing it really well in training, [and] another coming out whenever you\u2019re under pressure,\u201d she said of her performances last month. \u201cLast year I made so many leaps and bounds forward, but I hope I can do more magical things this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also speaking at the media event on Thursday evening, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: \u201cAthletics is one of the most loved sports in Poland, if not the most-loved sport.\u201d <\/p>\n

The hosts also have two pentathlon medal contenders in Paulina Ligarska and Adrianna Su\u0142ek-Schubert. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s pentathlon silver in China was Ireland\u2019s first World Indoors medal since Derval O\u2019Rourke won gold in the 60m hurdles in 2006. Another fascinating battle awaits.<\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t the only Irish medal contender here. Five of the 11 Irish athletes are in action during Friday\u2019s opening sessions, starting with Bori Akinola in the heats of the 60m, before Mark English<\/a> begins his quest to make his first global final in the 800m.<\/p>\n

With five European medals to his name, including three indoors, no athlete in this event is more experienced than English. Although he turned 33 on Wednesday, he is still speeding up, taking his own Irish indoor record down to 1:44.23 last month.<\/p>\n

That ranks him fifth fastest here, with Belgium\u2019s Eliott Crestan leading the way with his 1:43.83. English will have no complaints about his draw, the fastest in the fourth of six heats. The top two (plus the six fastest times) progress to Saturday\u2019s semi-finals. He will have one of Poland\u2019s hopes, Filip Ostrowski (1:44.68), for company.<\/p>\n

Akinola goes in the third of seven heats in the 60m. His recent Irish record of 6.54 is the third fastest in that line-up. The top three, plus three fastest times, will qualify for the semi-finals later on Friday. Maeve O\u2019Neill and Emma Moore, both of whom are making their senior Irish debuts, won\u2019t have it easy in their 800m heats.<\/p>\n

Irish in Action on Friday (all times Irish)<\/p>\n

Bori Akinola \u2013 Men\u2019s 60m Heats \u2013 9:20<\/p>\n

Maeve O\u2019Neill, Emma Moore \u2013 Women\u2019s 800m Heats \u2013 11:51<\/p>\n

Mark English \u2013 Men\u2019s 800m Heats \u2013 12:26<\/p>\n

James Gormley \u2013 Men\u2019s 1,500m Heats \u2013 17:54<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s 60m \u2013 SF \u2013 19:16 <\/p>\n

Men\u2019s 60m \u2013 Final \u2013 20:22 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena sits on the edge of the old walled town of Torun, still one of Poland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[21345,61,60,14940,14938,161451,14329,14939,112,161450],"class_list":["post-355550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cian-mcphillips","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kate-o-connor","tag-mark-english","tag-nick-griggs","tag-rhasidat-adeleke","tag-sarah-healy","tag-sports","tag-world-athletics-indoor-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355550","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=355550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}