O'Connor wins silver medal at World Indoors

Ireland's Kate O'Connor has won a silver medal in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing.

The performance means O'Connor, 24, becomes the first Irish athlete to win a medal at a World Indoors since Derval O'Rourke's 60m hurdles triumph in 2006.

After being in second place after three of the five events, O'Connor dropped to third spot following the penultimate long jump despite producing her fourth personal best of the championships.

However, she was only three points behind USA's Taliyah Brooks and the Irish woman finished well ahead of the American in the concluding 800m to secure a silver, which added to her bronze medal from the European Indoor Championships earlier this month.

Ireland's Kate O'Connor produced 60m hurdles, shot put and long jump personal bests on the way to winning the silver medal in Nanjing

Finland's Saga Vanninen followed up her European Indoor triumph by taking gold with 4,821 points which was 79 points ahead of O'Connor, who won Commonwealth Games silver for Northern Ireland in 2022, with Brooks a further 73 points back in third place.

Newry-born O'Connor produced personal bests of 6.30m and 6.32m in the long jump, adding five centimetres to the mark she produced at the European Indoors.

That came after personal best of 8.30 seconds in the opening 60m hurdles, a strong high jump performance and another lifetime best of 14.64 metres in the shot put.

O'Connor co-led the high jump standings with a mark of 1.81m which was 0.03m down on the Irish woman's personal best set at the European Indoors.

O'Connor's huge two weeks - analysis

Kate O'Connor's second major medal in less than a fortnight rounds off an indoor campaign where she has established herself a genuinely world-class multi-event athlete.

After winning the silver medal for Northern Ireland behind Katarina Johnson-Thompson at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Dundalk woman became the first Irish athlete to complete at an Olympic heptathlon in Paris where she finished in 14th place.

But O'Connor's series of personal bests over the winter and spring has enabled her to produce a huge breakthrough and there will be mounting excitement in Irish athletics about her prospects outdoors this summer and beyond.

The 24-year-old will also have her strongest event the javelin to add to her repertoire for her summer campaign which will culminate at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

Healy another Irish medal hopeful

O'Connor's team-mates Andrew Coscoran and Sophie O'Sullivan both missed out on clinching final spots in their 1500m events.

Coscoran, who broke the Irish indoor and outdoor mile records last month, finished third in his first-round heat won by Jakob Ingebrigtsen but it wasn't enough to progress as the Norwegian star (three minutes 39.80 seconds) and Austria's Raphael Pallitsch (3:40.08) took the two qualifying spots.

The Balbriggan man left himself with too much do in the closing stages when Ingebrigtsen surged past him from last place to lead as the bell sounded and the Irishman was 0.69 seconds behind the Austrian.

O'Sullivan produced a personal best of 4:16.68 in her heat but that was over three seconds outside a qualification spot as Ethiopia's Diribe Weltejl (4:12.25), USA's Heather MacLean (4:13.26) and Portugal's Salome Afonso (4:13.39) progressed to the final.

Coscoran still has the 3,000m, which is a straight final on Saturday with James Gormley also running in the Ireland vest, while Sarah Healy will be a strong Irish medal hope in Saturday's women's 3,000m final after winning the European title two weeks ago.

Sarah Lavin will be the last of the six-strong Ireland team in action when she competes in the women's 60m hurdles on Sunday after finishing fourth at the European Indoors.