World Athletics Championship: Ireland’s Kate O’Connor wins historic heptathlon silver in Tokyo

In the final event, the 800m, O’Connor produced another stunning run for a fifth PB in seven events with a time of two minutes, 9.56 seconds.

The silver medal caps the best year of O’Connor’s career after she claimed bronze in the pentathlon at the European Championships, silver at the World Indoors before setting a new national record at the World University Games to claim gold outdoors.

After battling injuries to qualify for her first Olympics last year, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist finished 14th in Paris, but she has begun the start of the Los Angeles 2028 cycle in superb form.

O’Connor’s silver is also Ireland’s first world track and field medal since Sonia O’Sullivan’s 5,000m gold in 1995 and first medal of any kind since Rob Heffernan’s 50km race walk win in 2013.

Later on Saturday, fast-finishing Cian McPhillips narrowly missed out on adding a bronze to O’Connor’s silver after he finished fourth in the men’s 800m final.

The 23-year-old Longford man surged to the finish line to clock one minute, 42.15 seconds and lower the national record he set in his semi-final win on Thursday.

McPhillips finished behind Canada’s bronze medallist Marco Arop (1:41.95), while Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi (1:41.86) took gold ahead of Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati (1:41.90).

Ireland’s women’s 4x400m relay team of Sophie Becker, Cliodhna Manning, Rachel McCann and Sharlene Mawdsley were also in action on Saturday, but finished last in their heat.