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Kate O'Connor into bronze medal position as Sarah Lavin bows out of hurdles heats

22 March 2026; Kate O'Connor of Ireland celebrates a clearance in the Women's high jump event in the Women's Pentathlon during day three of the World Athletics Indoor Championships at Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena in Torun, Poland. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfil
Kate O'Connor reacts to her clutch third time clearance at 1.81m in the high jump

Kate O'Connor is lying in third position after three events of the women's pentathlon at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Torun, Poland.

The world indoor silver medallist from last year's championship began her bid for another podium finish with a 7.23 clocking in the 60m hurdles, just two hundredths off the personal best she set in the national championships at the start of the month.

22 March 2026; Kate O'Connor of Ireland, left, and Anna Hall of United States compete in the Women's 60m hurdles event in the Women's Pentathlon during day three of the World Athletics Indoor Championships at Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena in Torun, Poland. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Kate O'Connor clocked closed to her personal best in the opening event in Torun

Vitally in the high jump, O'Connor cleared 1.81m on the third attempt, before failing to get over 1.84m.

Anna Hall and Sofie Dokter both cleared that height. Hall then bowed out at 1.87m. Dokter exited the competition at the next height but in the lead after two events.

In the final event of the morning session, O'Connor produced two personal bests. She added one centimetre to her previous shot put best in round two, before adding an additional five centimetres, throwing 14.70m in the final round to secure the bronze medal position with the long jump and 800m to come on Sunday evening.

O'Connor sits on 2909 points, 33 points adrift of leader Dokter, with Hall in second with 2926 points.

O'Connor and Dokter have almost identical season's bests in the long jump which will take place at 4:40pm.

Sarah Lavin didn't progress to the semi-final stage of the women's 60m hurdles, clocking 8.08 to finish fifth in heat one.

With only the top three to qualify automatically and the next six fastest advancing on time, Lavin was pushed out of the non-automatic slots by the third heat.

22 March 2026; Sarah Lavin of Ireland competes in the Women's 60m hurdles heat during day three of the World Athletics Indoor Championships at Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena in Torun, Poland. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Sarah Lavin finished fifth in heat one of the 60m hurdles

The last time Lavin failed to qualify out of her heat in an international championships was 12 years ago at the European Championships in 2014, where she finished eighth in her heat and the Limerick native was understandably disappointed with her run.

"Honestly I'm lost for words and I wish I could tell you exactly. I know it was sloppy, I know I didn't run fast enough... I had a very good warm-up. There's nothing that signalled I might give out a performance like that," Lavin told RTÉ Sport.

The 31-year-old detailed that she would need to watch back footage before knowing where she went wrong but felt her lane eight draw was not a factor.

"I wouldn't have come here unless I thought I could push for a final. That's where I've been and that's where I belong. I think Noelle (Morrissey) and I have a lot to reflect on and improve and try to understand why I opened with a 7.98 and why we didn't push on from there.

"I don't know right now, five minutes after coming off the track, what I did or what I didn't do. Obviously, I'll take full ownership for it. It was a bad run and I'm not here for that."

Listen to live updates from the World Athletics Championships on Saturday and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.

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