{"id":595012,"date":"2026-08-16T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595012\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:40:11","slug":"man-arrested-in-birmingham-after-police-incident-delays-kate-oconnor-medal-ceremony-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595012\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested in Birmingham after police incident delays Kate O\u2019Connor medal ceremony \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medal ceremonies at the European Athletics Championships<\/a> in Birmingham were postponed on Saturday evening and transport was suspended after a man was arrested on suspicion of fraud.<\/p>\n

Heptathlon champion Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a> was due to receive her medal on Saturday night, but the ceremony was pushed to Sunday after an announcement circulated by organisers as competition continued.<\/p>\n

Tournament organisers said transport operations had returned to normal in the early hours of Sunday.<\/p>\n

A statement from Birmingham 2026 acknowledged a \u201cpolice incident\u201d on Saturday, saying: \u201cChampionship transport was suspended until the necessary security measures had been carried out whilst West Midlands Police arrested a man in his thirties on suspicion of fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety and wellbeing of our spectators, athletes, workforce and the wider Championships\u2019 family will always be our first priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that the delays presented challenges for those affected and would like to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and cooperation throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther information will be issued on Sunday relating to the evening\u2019s postponed medal ceremonies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A West Midlands Police spokesperson confirmed a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of fraud and remained in custody for questioning.<\/p>\n

The crowd at the Alexander Stadium appeared to be near its 23,000 capacity to watch Saturday\u2019s evening session, with local interest in the 4x100m relay finals, where Britain\u2019s men and women both took gold, despite Irish athlete Andrew Coscoran joking that \u201cthere are no Brits here\u201d due to the high take-up of tickets from Irish supporters.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0European Championships: O\u2019Connor wins heptathlon gold, bronze for Coscoran; Walshe earns second IM goldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Kate O\u2019Connor celebrates after winning heptathlon gold. Her medal ceremony is due to take place on Sunday morning. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

At one point during the session, there was an announcement that the six medal ceremonies, scheduled to take place after the final event between 10pm and 11pm, were cancelled.<\/p>\n

Outside, there was a visibly heavy police presence and huge static queues of people waiting for shuttle buses.<\/p>\n

Attendees posting on social media described \u201ccrazy queues\u201d for the shuttle bus and complained of \u201clittle communication\u201d with those delayed leaving. -PA<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark English wins gold, Rhasidat Adeleke wins silver on unforgettable night for Irish athleticsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medal ceremonies at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham were postponed on Saturday evening and transport was suspended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[163615,42,14940,43,40,38,41,39,1577],"class_list":["post-595012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-european-athletics-championships","tag-headlines","tag-kate-o-connor","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595012","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=595012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}