Historic bronze for Kate O’Connor
Kate O’Connor won bronze for Ireland at the World Indoor Championships in Poland on Sunday evening, continuing her recent incredible success.
Only Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan have now won more individual global medals at senior championships.
O’Connor also set a new national record of 4,839 points on her way to becoming the first Irishwoman to win two World Indoor medals. The 25 year old is well on her way to becoming one of Ireland's greatest ever athletes.
She went into the final event of the day, the 800m, second and produced a personal best of 2:10.26 to secure bronze, finishing just 49 points behind gold medallist Dutch woman Sofie Dokter, who scored 4,888. Anna Hall of USA took silver with 4,860.
In 2025, the Dundalk athlete claimed medals at the European Indoor Championships (bronze), World Indoor Championships (silver), World University Games (gold), and the World Outdoor Championships (silver).
Speaking after her 800m race, the two-time World Indoor medallist said: “I came here with very high expectations and although I maybe didn’t meet them, I’m coming away a world bronze medallist and I really can’t complain with that. I think it’s probably a good thing that I am walking away thinking I could do a little better, but ultimately I’m delighted.
“After opening my season so well at the national championships, I really hoped to come here and do something extraordinary. I’ve had a couple of health issues since nationals and I wouldn’t say that training has gone 100%, so what I did today probably showed that. What’s amazing is that a sub-par day still gets me a medal and I’m really excited to build on this for the outdoor season.
“My plan is to do the Commonwealth Games and European Championships. I’ll open at the Commonwealths, and then the Europeans are the main aim for me. I want to try and win gold. It’s going to be a tough competition, but if you don’t go in with the mindset to win gold, you’re never going to do it. I’m going to work really hard for the next four or five months and put myself in the position to win that gold.”
Cork woman Maeve O’Neill of Doheny AC made her debut at a senior international championships at the event. She finished sixth in her Women’s 800m semi-final. The Cork woman ran bravely throughout but ultimately faded in the final lap.
“I knew I had to get out hard, so that’s what I did,” she said. “I went through 200m faster than I usually would and tried to hang on for as long as I could, but it wasn’t there today. I wouldn’t change it, that was the best chance I had of trying to qualify for the final.”
It marks another hugely successful championship for Team Ireland and bodes well for the upcoming outdoor season, which will be headlined by the European Championships in Birmingham from 10–16 August.