Kate O'Connor won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships following an incredible fifth personal best from seven events, as she clocked two minutes 9.56 seconds in the decisive 800m.
The Dundalk St Gerard's athlete secured the silver despite sustaining a knee injury during the long jump in the morning session.
The 24-year-old becomes the first Irish woman to medal at a major championships in a multi-discipline sport - Tom Kiely won Olympic all-around (the predecessor to the decathlon) gold representing Great Britain and Ireland in 1904 - and only the sixth Irish athlete to medal at the Worlds, the first since Rob Heffernan 12 years ago.
The gold was taken by Anna Hall of the United States, who came home first in the 800m in 2:06.08. O'Connor finished in seventh place, ahead of main challenger Taliyah Brooks and just behind Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson, her other contender for a medal.
Hall took the title with 6881 points, O'Connor's 6714 was a national record, while Brooks and Johnson-Thompson will share the bronze medal on 6581.
🇮🇪 🥈It's heptathlon silver for Ireland's Kate O'Connor!!!
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 20, 2025
Despite nursing a knee injury, O'Connor shows incredible guts to run a PB - her fifth of championships - to make the podium! #WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/54SxsPjIyD
Day one of the competition saw O'Connor deliver personal bests in the 100m hurdles, high jump and 200m, leaving her second overall.
She continued that form on Saturday morning.
In the long jump, not one of her strongest events, she produced a best leap of 6.22m. That gained the Dundalk competitor 918 points, moving her up to 4824 points, 191 points up on where she was at this stage when setting her previous Irish record (6497 points) in July.
It's a super first throw from Ireland's Kate O'Connor in the javelin event of the women's heptathlon.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 20, 2025
Watch live now on @RTE2 and @RTEplayer #RTEsport pic.twitter.com/4mVDgVU1Jd
Later in the morning, O'Connor threw a terrific PB of 53.06m in the javelin to get into the medal places on 5743 points.
She becomes the sixth World medallist for Ireland, following Eamonn Coghlan (gold, 1500m, 1983), Sonia O'Sullivan (gold, 5000m, 1995 and silver, 1500m, 1993), Gillian O'Sullivan (silver, 20km walk, 2003), Olive Loughnane (silver, 20km walk, 2009) and Rob Heffernan (gold, 50km walk, 2013).
There was no joy for the women's 4x400m relay team, who finished last in their heat. Sophie Becker made a good start, but a slow changeover with Cliodhna Manning disrupted Irish momentum.
They dropped down the field and never recovered, with Rachel McCann and Sharlene Mawdsley failing to make up the yards and nab the top-three finish required to earn a spot in the final.
Longford's Cian McPhillips finished fourth in the men's 800m final.
Watch coverage of Sunday's action from Tokyo on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player from 11.00pm
