Kate O’Connor sets high medal bar in Nanjing as rise of Irish athletics continues

It doesn’t matter whether it’s the longest or the shortest race, split-second decisions often prove costly at the World Indoor Championships. Not enough to cost Ireland another medal in Nanjing, although a marginally different decision may have brought both Sarah Healy and Sarah Lavin even closer.

Neither athlete would likely disagree. So after the frantic three days of track and field action in Nanjing, Kate O’Connor returns home as the only medal winner among the six-strong Irish team, her pentathlon silver on Friday ending the 19-year wait since Derval O’Rourke last won anything for Ireland at this level with her gold in the 60m hurdles.

After Healy finished up sixth in her 3,000m final on Saturday, with Andrew Coscoran also sixth in the men’s event, it still represents the best Irish showing at this event since Moscow in 2006. Given O’Connor continued her remarkable series of firsts in the multi-events, adding to her bronze medal won on the European stage in Apeldoorn, the natural ...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]