Family tears as Newry's Kate O’Connor signs off on Olympic Games debut with final heptathlon best
Kate O’Connor, who made history for Team Ireland simply by taking part in the heptathlon, clocked a season’s best time to close out her Olympic Games debut.
The Newry-born athlete entered as the first-ever Team Ireland competitor in the seven-strong event and finished 14th overall.
O’Connor wrapped up the demanding two-day schedule with a time of 2:13.25 over the 800m finale - a fitting finale to the landmark experience.
“It was an enjoyable two days, a lot of highs and a lot of lows but, overall, very enjoyable,” she said. “Seeing all those Ireland flags warms my heart, that people actually want to come out and watch me and the rest of the team.”
The 23-year-old member of the Dundalk St Gerald’s AC, who represented Northern Ireland at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, arrived in Paris with preparations disrupted by hamstring issues.
“In the 800m my plan was to just go out and run a season’s best, there was an outside chance I could’ve moved up a slot, there was also an outside chance I could’ve dropped down a spot,” she said. “Fourteenth at the Olympic Games...I can’t complain.”
O’Connor’s father, Michael, has served as coach on the journey to the global showpiece.
“It’s a great experience,” she said. “For the both of us to be at our very first Olympic Games together isn’t something that many people can say that they’ve actually done.
"I saw him in the crowd and he was actually in tears.
“I know that he’s delighted with me.”
O’Connor was sitting 14th in the standings following the morning long jump off 5.79m and a 50.36m throw in the javelin.
The opening day’s programme featured the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m.
She posted 13.79m as her best in the shot put.
The 200m featured a season’s best of 24.77, just 0.04 off her Personal Best for fourth across the heat. In the 100m hurdles, O’Connor was seventh over her heat in 14.08 and the high jump ended with 1.77m for a season’s best for 19th overall after day one.
“It started off a little bit rough,” she said on Thursday. “The hurdles weren’t really what I was planning on doing but I’m really proud of how I picked myself up and then do a season’s best in the high jump.
"My high jump has been a bit all over the place this year because of injury but I feel like I got rolling after that.
“The shot could have been a bit better but it was pretty solid, it wasn’t terrible.
"I don’t think I lost too much there...I’m really proud of that 200m.
"It was only five or six weeks ago that I tore my hamstring.
"To run 0.04 off my Personal Best from lane two, I can’t complain with that.”
Of her Olympic Games experience, O’Connor declared: “I came here and my goal was to not have any regrets from all the events and I walked away from that hurdles and was like, damn it, I didn’t take in the crowd and stuff.
"But from the high jump on I made sure to enjoy the experience and just be me, just enjoy it and lap up the whole experience because it’s another four years before it’ll come around again.”