Irish heptathlete Kate O'Connor produced a superb performance to take second at the Multistars World Athletics Combined Events Challenge in Lana, Italy on Sunday.
In total she clocked up 6,297 points, seven off the Spanish winner Maria Vicente, which was an Irish national senior record and an U23 record.
It was a remarkable showing from O'Connor (20) who had not competed in a heptathlon for two years.
The competition was made up of 14 athletes with a PB over the 6000 points barrier and included top rising talents such as Vicente, Great Britain's Holly Mills and Australian Sarah Lagger.
The Olympic qualifying standard is 6,420 points but O'Connor's second place will put her inside the world top 24, and she would qualify automatically if still in that group on the cut-off date of 29 June.
In 2019, the Newry native won a historic heptathlon silver at the European Under-20 Athletics Championships in Boras, Sweden. It was the first time Ireland have medalled in the heptathlon at any level.
We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
