Joining Kate and Lady Mary Peters at Athletics NI function
KATE O’Connor is being labelled our next superstar.
And it’s no wonder… four years ago she was 24th in the world at hepthalon, now she’s up to second.
O’Connor, from Newry and competing for the Dundalk St Gearard’s club, stormed to silver medal success in Tokyo at the World Athletics Championships last month in what was the greatest weekend of her career. And she did it by recording five personal bests out of the seven events, and incredibly two while she was carrying a knee injury. There’s just no stopping her.
Not only did she become the first Irish woman to win a medal at a major championship in a multi discipline event, she is just the sixth World medalist for Ireland at the Athletic Championships following Eamon Coglan, Sonia O’Sullivan, Gillian O’Sullivan, Olive slough and and Rob Heffernan.
The Newry born athlete has enjoyed the year of her life. She’s won a European indoor bronze medal, World indoor silver, World University Games gold and now World Championships silver. She fished 14th at last summer’s Olympics in Paris but in just over a year has become a name her competitors now see as one of their biggest threats.
O’Connor was sitting second in the table after day one of the hepthalon but dropped down to fourth after the long jump on day two. To make things tougher, she injured her knee during the long jump. She knew she had two strong events still to come but could have settled on going for the bronze medal at that point. Is that the mindset of a champion though? No, and certainly not what Kate O’Connor or her team were prepared to settle for.
“My team were amazing, they told me to remember what I had done in training, I knew what I was capable of and there was no way I was going to settle for third place,” O’Connor beamed in an interview from Tokyo.
Twenty-four year old O’Connor went on to record personal bests in the next two events, the javelin and the 800m. The pictures from the Japan capital were priceless as O’Connor watched the screen to see the final standings. And you couldn’t help but feel the emotion through the screen when she hugged her dad, Michael, who is also her coach. What amazing pictures they will have for their family album!
Both Kate and Michael deserve a lot of credit for how they have worked their way up to second in the world. Kate was a European medalist for Ireland at under 20 level in 2019 and announced herself onto the senior stage by winning a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games for Team Northern Ireland.
I interviewed both Kate and her dad Michael at the Athletics NI Awards back in 2024 before she had qualified for the Olympics. I asked them about their working relationship. You could see they had a very tight bond on and off the track. And while there must be pressure of always bringing work home with you in that scenario, you could tell they had an understanding that both wanted the best for Kate.
O’Connor has made it clear that she is targeting the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. After the year she has had no one would be surprised to see her succeed. A lot will happen between now and then but for now she has returned home to rehab her knee and I’m sure celebrate what has been a stunning success.
Move over Supergirl and Wonderwoman, we have a new hepthalon hero in town and her name is Kate O’Connor!
With our latest boxing world champion Lewis Crocker on his return to his old school, Malone College
Northern Ireland is also celebrating another boxing World Champion. Lewis Crocker is the new IBF World Welterweight king after defeating Paddy Donovan int he first all-Ireland world title fight which was held in Windsor Park, Belfast.
The Clearer Twist National Stadium was packed with almost 20,000 fans on the night for the first fight night there since Carl Frampton and Tyson Fury took centre stage in 2018.
Despite going in as the underdog after the first fight back in March, Crocker boxed clever and brought a different game plan to the ring this time around. He knocked Donovan down in the second and fifth rounds and they proved vital for his victory. It was a cagey affair, which was understandable given the magnitude of the fight and what was on offer, but in the end the split decision went Crocker’s way.
The 28 year old from Sandy Row hasn’t stopped celebrating since, and rightly so! He was given a civic reception at Belfast City Hall by Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly, also from Sandy Row, two days after being crowned world champion.
He was given a hero’s welcome at his amateur club Holy Trinity ABC, and he was the special guest at his former school, Malone College’s, prize day.
I interviewed his former teacher Pat Cavanagh for UTV on the day of the awards and asked him what sort of student Lewis was.
“He’s a world champion boxer so I have to be careful how I answer that!” he joked. “No, he was great, and what an inspiration he is to all our pupils, he has shown them that they can achieve their goals if they work hard enough.”
It’s unclear yet when his next fight will be but his manager Jamie Conlan is looking to set up at a potential defence for Crocker before Christmas or early next year with the hope that another big Windsor Park World title showdown will follow that next summer.
Finally congratulations also to Mark Allen who won his 12th ranking event at the English Open last month. That’s 12 victories from 20 ranking finals that The Pistol from Antrim has now won. He’ll be the star attraction this month when the NI Open returns to the Waterfront Hall, a tournament he won back to back in 2022 and 2023 when he lifted the Alex Higgins trophy.
With legendary boxing writer and columnist Steve Bunce at Windsor Park title fight and, below, what a show Lewis Crocker and the Matchroom organisers put on
