The newly-crowned Commonwealth heptathlon champion is stuffed with confidence as she approaches her first European Championships in Birmingham.
There was a second, with the solar setting on a blustery Wednesday night in Glasgow, when Kate O’Connor stepped into the sunshine. The ultimate self-discipline of the ladies’s heptathlon – the 800m – was coming to its conclusion and, after two days of exhausting toil and battling the weather, it was time to have slightly enjoyable.
Coming off the ultimate bend, the 25-year-old was sitting third within the race however out she moved and cruised previous her opponents. With Commonwealth gold secured – the primary to be received by a Northern Irish competitor in athletics for 40 years – right here was a possibility to soak within the second and benefit from the first main title of her profession.
Over the previous 18 months, there had been medal success for O’Connor to have a good time. Final 12 months represented a serious breakthrough, with European indoor bronze, then world silver medals each indoors all coming her means.
There was additionally a world indoor bronze in March, however a knee challenge meant that Scotstoun was her first heptathlon of the 12 months, so to supply a successful rating of 6569 factors in Scottish climate that was testing, to say the least, was candy.
Sweeter nonetheless was the truth that considered one of O’Connor’s heroes – former Olympic champion Dame Mary Peters and the final Northern Irishwoman to win a mixed occasions Commonwealth title – was within the stands to see her doing it.
“It is fairly surreal to be put in the identical sentence as her as a result of to me she is among the icons of multi occasions,” says O’Connor. “To be in contrast or to be put in the identical sentence [as her] is one thing that I am nonetheless making an attempt to return to phrases with in my very own head.”
It’s not the one factor that the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth silver medallist has been processing. Coached by her father Michael, she has established herself as an actual pressure on the worldwide scene and can now head again to the Alexander Stadium, and her first outside European Championships, as one of many athletes to look at when the competitors will get occurring August 14.
“I’ve at all times been fairly a mentally robust particular person, and I cope very properly below strain, however now that possibly different persons are beginning to discover that and say that about me, it makes it slightly bit tougher to then really cope with the strain and have the ability to nonetheless execute,” she says. “That is what folks now expect me to do as a result of that is what I do, apparently.
“Typically, I am standing on the excessive leap runway and I am like: ‘Oh god, everybody’s really anticipating me now to recover from this’, so that may be powerful. Nevertheless it’s half and parcel of it, is not it? The highest athletes are those which can be in a position to navigate the strain and cope with it. It is undoubtedly not simple, however it’s a part of it.”
The easiest way to manage, she says, is to compile some exhausting proof in coaching for back-up. O’Connor’s week usually includes 4 “full work days” of coaching that begin at 9am and end at 5pm. The 2 “shorter” days: “Aren’t that quick. They’re 5 hours, however they’re slightly simpler and lighter on the physique.
“Everytime you do strong coaching blocks behind the scenes, and you already know that that is going properly, it makes coping with the pressures slightly bit simpler as a result of I am not turning as much as championships hoping for something – I am simply making an attempt to execute what I do day in, time out.
“I am not searching for something particular. I am simply trying to do what I do daily again at residence. That is one thing that undoubtedly helps me loads. What I do in coaching is what I will do in competitors, and I undoubtedly discover some reduction in that.”
O’Connor shall be calling on that physique of proof for Birmingham, the place she is all too conscious that the usual of competitors shall be extremely excessive. Switzerland’s Annik Kälin has produced the 2 highest heptathlon scores in 2026, whereas Dutch athletes Emma Oosterwegel and Sofie Dokter are additionally in kind. Then there’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who can have the house help behind her, albeit the British two-time world champion withdrew from the Commonwealth Video games attributable to an harm concern.
No matter what occurs, a brand new European champion shall be topped following the withdrawal of 2024 gold medallist and three-time Olympic champion Nafi Thiam. O’Connor wasn’t at these championships in Rome, selecting as an alternative to focus absolutely on qualifying for the Paris Olympics. She additionally missed Munich 2022, by means of harm, so is relishing the chance to have interaction in continental competitors.
“Will probably be a enjoyable expertise doing the European champs for the primary time,” she says. “It is going to be very stiff competitors, however the plan was to return [to Glasgow], shake off the rust and present myself that I am in fine condition. To attain virtually 6600 factors in climate like that and within the cool is one thing to be actually pleased with. It provides me a whole lot of hope for what I can do within the subsequent couple weeks.”
That rating, the second-highest of her profession and achieved regardless of the biblical rain that resulted in O’Connor throwing properly under par within the shot put, undoubtedly despatched out a message.
“I’ve by no means been in a contest the place a medal’s been simple to win,” she provides. “I am hoping that I will have the ability to exit and make it exhausting for everyone, similar to they’ll hope that they’ll exit and make it exhausting for me. That is the enjoyable half.”
To listen to O’Connor simply discuss by means of the toll that an elite heptathlon can take sounds exhausting in itself, however it does give some perception into the dimensions of the duty confronted by the athletes who select to place themselves within the enviornment.
“It is clearly extraordinarily bodily fatiguing, however it’s most likely extra the psychological fatigue that’s the actually powerful half,” she says. “All of it begins the day earlier than the heptathlon even begins, as a result of the nerves begin, and you already know you’ve got obtained two enormous days of competitors arising, and possibly you do not sleep that properly earlier than the comp begins.
“Then it’s important to cope with your feelings being everywhere on day one – whether or not that is highs or whether or not that is lows – in addition to possibly having a whole lot of caffeine in your system by the point the evening time rolls round. And you then’ve obtained to attempt to sleep.
“You get up on day two and also you’re sore, after which you have to try to do it once more. The psychological fatigue for me actually rolls in earlier than the 800m as a result of I do know that I will ask my physique to do one thing that is actually troublesome and it does not need to do.
“You may virtually really feel all the things shutting down, however that is when it’s important to discover that inside power to face on the road and do the job that you just’re getting down to do.”
It was uncommon, then, for O’Connor to really feel the best way she did when that 800m rolled round in Glasgow.
“I was an 800m runner after I was a child, so it was like going again to that and working a tactical race, which I hadn’t run in a very long time as a result of within the multi-events you simply go as quick as you possibly can for so long as you possibly can and simply maintain on.
“With 200m to go, I used to be like: ‘Gosh, I really feel actually recent proper now’. Even up the house straight I used to be simply being springy and bounding alongside, which was actually enjoyable. I used to be genuinely having fun with myself and listening to the commentator.
“It fills me with confidence as a result of I crossed the road and I felt like, if I needed to go for one more 150m, I most likely may have. So I feel that I am in actually good bodily form. I did not want to indicate all the things, however I confirmed sufficient.”
Birmingham 2026 tickets are nonetheless accessible right here
