Ireland's Kate O'Connor was more than pleased to have achieved three personal bests on a hectic day one of the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which left her in second place and firmly in medal contention ahead of the concluding three events on Saturday.
The 100m hurdles, high jump and 200m saw O'Connor better what she had achieved before. There was also a commendable performance in the shot put, adding to an all-round brilliant day that left her second on 3906 points, behind runaway leader Anna Hall of the USA who sits on 4154 points.
The competition concludes on Saturday with the long jump, javelin and 800m events.
The Dundalk athlete is in the mix for a medal. No doubt she will look to apply the regimental manner in which she approached Friday's schedule to what lies ahead in the remaining disciplines tomorrow, which resume with the long jump at 3.35am Irish time, followed by the javelin throw (11am) and 800m finale (1.11pm).
Outlining that approach, she told RTÉ Sport's David Gillick: "Before I came here, I wrote out all my little marks I wanted to hit. In the hurdles I was going for a 13.3 (seconds) but managed to get very close to it. In the high jump I wanted 1.83 (metres) but got 1.86.
"The shot was a little iffy at training but I wanted a solid 14-metre throw and got 14.3. And there (200m), if I'm being honest I wanted a sub-24 but that is me being greedy, being a competitor."
The 24-year-old, however, did point out the rather frenetic nature of moving from one event to the next.
"People at home many not realise but we didn't have time to go to the toilet," she added. "There was no time to warm up between the shot and the 200.
"It has been go, go, go from one to the next. I'm trying to think of it as a training day at home. Coming into it, I was thinking I should play it to my advantage, in that this is how I train and you just go out, go from one event to the next. I had three personal bests so in fairness it's going well."
The O'Connor support is clear to be seen in Tokyo, led by her father Michael, who is also her coach. A comfort blanket that is greatly appreciated within a tension-filled competitive arena.
"The nerves are all over the place. In the high jump I did not do too many madness jumps; it was all pretty solid up until the 86. I think I kept their heart rate low as I possibly could but they have been great. In the times where I don't know what I'm doing they always have the right cues to settle me.
"That's one of the biggest things about the heptathlon, it's about keeping your emotions as flatline as possible and not waste energy here, there, and everywhere."
For now it's about "getting dinner" and "heading to bed" ahead of a possible medal quest, to add to the pentathlon bronze at the European Indoors, silver at the World Indoors and heptathlon gold at the World University Games.
Watch the World Athletics Championships with coverage every day this week on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
