Golden girl Kate to represent Ireland in Tokyo
Kate O'Connor has been named as one of the 25 provisional squad of athletes to represent Ireland at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.
The 24-year-old Newry heptathlete earned her place on the squad after a terrific year that saw her reach number four in the world.
Kate won a gold medal in the Women's Heptathlon at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr in Germany last month with an amazing performance, smashing the Irish National Record on her way to topping the podium. Kate ran a Personal Best in the 200m with a time of 24.33. She followed that with100m hurdles - 13.89, high jump - 1.83m, shot put - 13.76, long jump - 6.15m, javelin - 51.87 and O’Connor topped her evening off with an exceptional performance and another PB of 2:10:46 in the 800m to set a new National Record of 6487 breaking her own record from 2021.
Before that, the Dundalk-based athlete, who competes in both heptathlon and pentathlon, won silver in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China, just 12 days after winning a bronze at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in the Netherlands.
Amongst those joining O'Connor in World Championships in Tokyo from 13-21 of September are Sarah Healy (1500m), and Mark English (800m), both having also won indoor medals this year.
European mixed relay champion Sharlene Mawdsley will compete in the women's 400m, mixed 4x400m relay and women's 4x400m relay events at the championships.