LAST UPDATE | 20 Sep

IRELAND’S KATE O’CONNOR has won a historic silver medal in the women’s heptathlon after an incredible campaign at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

O’Connor finished the 800m – the last event of the heptathlon – in seventh place to secure the silver medal and deliver Ireland’s first World Championships medal since Rob Heffernan won gold in the 50km walk in 2013.

Also at the World Athletics Championships, Cian McPhilips broke the national record again, clocking 1:42.15 to finish fourth in the final of the men’s 800m.

A brilliant opening day where O’Connor earned three personal bests across four events to put her in silver medal contention. She slipped back to fourth after the long jump but returned to second place overall after a fourth personal best in the javelin.

Her 800m performance completed a superb run in Tokyo, clocking a personal best 2:09.56, her fifth personal best of the campaign.

🇮🇪 🥈It's heptathlon silver for Ireland's Kate O'Connor!!!
Despite nursing a knee injury, O'Connor shows incredible guts to run a PB - her fifth of championships - to make the podium! #WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/54SxsPjIyD

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 20, 2025

O’Connor, who had achieved four personal bests in Tokyo, was in fourth position following the long jump phase. The Dundalk multi-eventer was in the silver medal spot following yesterday’s four events, and delivered a best of 6.22m in the long jump.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” O’Connor told Athletics Ireland after her long jump performance.

“Solid is the word that I would use. It wasn’t great; it wasn’t too bad. I think I had a really good first jump and I just broke slightly. But my run up was a little all over the place so to have a got a half-decent jump in, I’m pretty happy.”

O’Connor added that it was difficult to reset after a fail on her first jump.

“Definitely. The nerves go from zero to 100 because you could foul a second and then be in a bit of a pickle. It was really important to get that second jump in and get a couple of extra centimetres on the third.”

O’Connor stormed into silver medal contention yesterday with three personal bests across four events on the opening day of the heptathlon.

She started the day by setting a big PB of 13.44 seconds in the 100m hurdles, finishing in eighth place, and then followed that up with a PB of 1.86m to finish fourth in the high jump.

A throw of 14.37 metres was enough for fifth in the shot put phase which put her outright third after three of the seven events. She finished the day by running a 200m PB of 24.07 to put her in silver medal position overnight.

Triple Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam dropped out of the event, the Belgian’s agent told AFP.

Her representative Helena Van der Plaetsen confirmed she would not carry on and her coach Michael Van Der Plaetsen later told Belgian media: “It makes no sense for her to continue.”

Thiam was aiming to break Carolina Kluft’s European heptathlon record of 7,032 points in Tokyo, but almost nothing went to plan and after four events, she was only in sixth place, notably after a poor 200 metres. She has since dropped another two places in the rankings after a disappointing long jump, in which she was 11th with 5.99m.

The Ireland women’s 4x400m relay team of Sophie Becker, Cliodhna Manning, Rachel McCann and Sharlene Mawdsley were also in action today, finishing their heat in eighth place.

Ireland were without Rhasidat Adeleke and Phil Healy in the line-up but Becker ran a strong opening leg. Ireland drifted back in the changeover, as Manning took over in seventh place. McCann and Mawdsley were unable to make up the gap, crossing the line in 3:29.27.

Elsewhere at the World Athletics Championships today, Longford’s Cian McPhillips will contest for a medal in the final of the men’s 800m at 2.22pm.

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.