LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago

KATE O’CONNOR IS in the gold medal position after two brilliant performances in the long jump and javelin events of the Heptathlon at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

O’Connor vaulted herself to the top of the leaderboard after a big throw of 50.16 in her first attempt of the javelin, which is considered to be her strongest event.

She now sits in pole position on 5,812 with just one event remaining, 51 points clear of Dutch athlete Emma Oosterwegel (5,761), while Sofie Dokter is currently third with 5,741 points.

Kate O'Connor reflects on a 'special' effort in the long jump as she targets gold in the heptathlon #rtesport #EuropeanAthletics pic.twitter.com/h12NERiJca

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 15, 2026

The javelin is the penultimate stage of the Heptathlon, with the 800m to come later this evening between 7.45pm and 7.56pm.

“I knew I had a good jump in me,” O’Connor told RTÉ Sport while reflecting on her long jump performance.

“I’m delighted I managed to pull that out of the bag because I really needed it to put myself back in the mix.

“I don’t know what to say about the javelin. I know I have a great throw in me, it just didn’t happen today, and I don’t really want to make excuses for myself. I’m normally pretty good at throwing into the wind. A lot of people were up and down because of the wind, and I know they were suffering badly because of it in the women’s javelin.

“It definitely was something I was trying to navigate, but I am capable of throwing much further than that. I didn’t lose too much ground and I have a healthy enough lead at the moment, so I’m positive right now.”

O’Connor was third overall after the long jump portion of the competition this morning which left her on 4,949 points at that point behind Dokter on 4,954 points, and Switzerland’s Annik Kälin, who was the leader at that point on 4,955.

The 25-year-old O’Connor registered a personal best of 6.55m in her first long jump attempt with a 2m/s tailwind. Her second jump was 6.26m while her third and final jump was a foul.

O’Connor was firmly in the medal hunt after the first day of events on Friday, sitting third overall with 3,926 points, trailing Adrianna Sulek-Schumbert of Poland (3,968) and the Dokter (3,944) at that stage.

She made a strong start to the opening day in the 100m hurdles, clocking a personal best of 13.30 to finish fourth in heat two, and place 11th overall. O’Connor then cleared 1.86m to equal her high jump PB, adding 1,054 points to her total and moving her into third position overall.

In the shot put, her best throw of 13.96m left her 11th place before closing out the day with a new personal best of 23.79 seconds in the 200m.

Written by Sinead Farrell and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.