KATE O’CONNOR HAS won a bronze medal for Ireland in the Pentathlon at the European Indoor Athletics Championships, the third Irish medal to be won at the Championships in the last hour. 

The 24-year-old set her own personal best and finished the pentathlon with 4781 points. In the closing 800m race of the pentathlon, O’Connor took the lead and finished with a time of 2:11.42. 

She has broken her own national record.

Team Ireland athletes, from left, Mark English with his bronze medal from the men's 800m, Sarah Healy with her gold medal from the women's 3000m and Kate O'Connor with her bronze medal from the women's pentathlon on day four of the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2025 at the Omnisport Apeldoorn in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Sam Barnes / SPORTSFILE Sam Barnes / SPORTSFILE / SPORTSFILE

Kate O’Connor is the first Irish athlete to win a senior multi-events medal. The Dundalk native, a former European U-20 silver medallist, delivered a phenomenal performance, particularly in the 800m, where she overtook Britain’s Jade O’Dowda in the overall standings to secure third place.

“It’s absolute madness, I can’t believe it,” said O’Connor. “I knew I’d need something special to get into the medals, so I just took it one event at a time. After the long jump, I was frustrated because I had already put in four world-class performances and was still outside the top three. But I decided to give it everything.”

Speaking to RTÉ Sport following her win, O’Connor confessed that she had been anticipating coming in fourth place and had abandoned her plan with her coach at the 800m. 

“We had a plan, but halfway through the race I said ‘I’m going to run as fast as I flipping can’,” she said.

O’Connor’s father Micheal is her coach. Speaking to his daughter after her win, he said, “You are outstanding. You’ve given me one of the days of my life.”

Ireland’s Sarah Healy has won a gold medal in the 3000m, while Mark English took bronze in the 800m.