NEWRY’S KATE O’CONNOR set a new Irish senior record in the heptathlon over the weekend at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Italy.
The 18-year-old succeeded in breaking Elizabeth Morland’s record — set at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto — by recording 5881 points in the event, where she placed second overall.
Saturday saw O’Connor begin with a time of 14.48 in the 100m hurdles, record 1.72m in the high jump, 13.48m in the shot putt and round off the evening with 25.20 in the 200m.
Advertisement
She followed that up on Sunday by recording a personal best of 5.86m in the long jump and 49.31m in the javelin, before rounding off her performance with a time of 2.21.15 in the 800m — her seventh and final event.
O’Connor, who trains with St Gerard’s AC in Dundalk, set a new Northern Irish record for her performance in the javelin yesterday.
Her throw of 49.31m, which is also an Irish U20 record, broke her coach Laura Kerr’s record which had stood for the past 16 years.
“I did not expect this performance,” she said speaking to EuropeanAthletics.com, as she now turns her sights to the 2019 European Championships to be held in Boras, Sweden, in July.
“This weekend was cold but I’m used to this weather in my country. It would be amazing to win a medal at the European U20 Championships; that’s my goal for the year.”
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'I did not expect this': Newry 18-year-old smashes Irish senior heptathlon record in Italy
NEWRY’S KATE O’CONNOR set a new Irish senior record in the heptathlon over the weekend at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Italy.
The 18-year-old succeeded in breaking Elizabeth Morland’s record — set at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto — by recording 5881 points in the event, where she placed second overall.
Saturday saw O’Connor begin with a time of 14.48 in the 100m hurdles, record 1.72m in the high jump, 13.48m in the shot putt and round off the evening with 25.20 in the 200m.
She followed that up on Sunday by recording a personal best of 5.86m in the long jump and 49.31m in the javelin, before rounding off her performance with a time of 2.21.15 in the 800m — her seventh and final event.
O’Connor, who trains with St Gerard’s AC in Dundalk, set a new Northern Irish record for her performance in the javelin yesterday.
Her throw of 49.31m, which is also an Irish U20 record, broke her coach Laura Kerr’s record which had stood for the past 16 years.
“I did not expect this performance,” she said speaking to EuropeanAthletics.com, as she now turns her sights to the 2019 European Championships to be held in Boras, Sweden, in July.
“This weekend was cold but I’m used to this weather in my country. It would be amazing to win a medal at the European U20 Championships; that’s my goal for the year.”
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Athletics european athletics Heptathlon Italy Javelin kate o'connor Larna Record Breaker Shot Putt