Kate O'Connor on course for gold at World University Games

Irish Examiner

4 days ago

Kate O'Connor has put herself in prime position to win gold at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany – the Dundalk athlete sitting atop the overnight standings in the heptathlon with four of the seven events completed.
O'Connor racked up 3737 points on day one, leaving her 137 points clear of Hungary's Szabina Szucs, with Austria's Emilia Surch third on 3552. O'Connor, a master's student in communication and PR at Ulster University, started the day with a 13.89-second clocking in the 100m hurdles, some way down on her best of 13.57.
But she bounced back with a hugely impressive 1.83m in the high jump, the second highest clearance of her career, which she went over at her first attempt.
That left her atop the leaderboard on 2010 points, and O'Connor extended her lead in the shot put, throwing 13.76m. She closed the day in spectacular fashion, smashing her personal best with 24.33, her previous best being the 24.73 she ran in 2022.
It's already been a record-breaking year for the 24-year-old, who won pentathlon bronze at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands before winning World Indoor silver in Nanjing, China.
Kate O'Connor, from Dundalk in Louth, representing Ulster University and Ireland. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
She smashed the Irish pentathlon record twice indoors, and is on track to smash her Irish heptathlon record of 6297, which dates back to 2021. Her current tally of 3737 points is well clear of the 3666 she had amassed at the same point of the competition when she set the national record.
O'Connor will be back on track on Thursday morning for the heptathlon long jump, with the javelin in the early afternoon and the climactic 800m at 7.12pm Irish time.
A live stream is available on Fisu.tv. Just four Irish athletes have ever won gold at the World University Games: Ronnie Delany over 800m in 1961; Niall Bruton and Sonia O'Sullivan over 1500m in 1991; and Thomas Barr in the 400m hurdles in 2015. Barring injury or any major glitches on day two, O'Connor is likely to add her name to that list.
She is strong in all the remaining events, having improved her long jump best to 6.32m this year and her 800m best to 2:11.42, while the javelin is usually her forte. Her best of 52.92m dates to 2019 and this will be her first time throwing it in competition since last year's Paris Olympics.
Elsewhere, Jack Raftery came home fourth in the men's 400m final, the Dubliner unable to quite reproduce his recent heroics at the European Team Championships, where he became the second Irishman in history after David Gillick to break 45 seconds.
Raftery left himself a difficult task after finishing third in his semi-final, which saw him drawn on the difficult inside lane for the final. Nonetheless he charged into medal contention off the final bend but couldn't quite pull it off, coming home fourth in 45.69, with gold going to South Africa's Lythe Pilay in 44.84. Lauren Roy advanced to the semi-finals of the women's 200m after finishing second in her heat in 23.57.
Meanwhile, Sarah Lavin was in action in Eisenstadt, Austria, the Limerick athlete clocking 12.83 (+1.3m/s) to finish third in the women's 100m hurdles, with Poland's Pia Skrzyszowska taking victory in 12.72. Lavin had earlier clocked 12.92 to finish runner-up in the heats.