BY LEE MAGINNIS
IT all came together for Newry born Kate O’Connor in The Netherlands with a brilliant bronze medal performance for Ireland, four personal bests and a new national record at the European Indoor Championships pentathlon.
The first event of the pentathlon was a statement of intent as Kate set a new personal best in the 60 metres hurdles with a time of 8.31.
Dundalk club athlete Kate then set another PB, this time in the high jump, when she cleared 1.84 at the second attempt, triggering celebrations in the stands from dad and coach Michael.
She then followed this up with 14.32 in the shot put.
At this point Kate was in second position overall.
The long jump has been a tricky event for her in some previous championships, but not on this occasion as she soared out to 6.27, yet another PB.
That left Kate in fourth position overall going into the final event.
Jade O’Dowda (Great Britain and NI), sister of the Republic of Ireland playerCallum O’Dowda, was in the bronze medal position after the long jump.
This brought back memories of the last Commonwealth Games where she and Kate were fighting it out for the silver medal in the heptathlon’s final event, also the 800m.
The distance is known as a killer at the end of a long day, and it is four laps indoors.
Kate ran aggressively, following the early pace before taking the race by the scruff of the neck, hitting the front and then opening a gap on her rivals!
She ran 2:11.42, another PB, before dropping to the track exhausted.
But the job had been done, 4781 points, a new National Record and Kate got the bronze medal.
