Newry's Kate O'Connor produces four personal best performances from five events to claim bronze at European Indoor Championships

Representing Ireland in the pentathlon, the 24-year-old had already started with PBs in the 60m hurdles and high jump.

After further efforts in the shot putt and a personal best in the long jump, O'Connor was in fourth place and needed a strong performance across the 800m.

She duly obliged by winning the race in a personal best time of 2:11.42 to claim bronze to finish on an overall points tally of 4781, which bettered her existing Irish record by 98 points.

Speaking to RTE Sport with her father and trainer Michael after the race, she said: "If I'm being honest, when we were warming up I was half preparing my fourth-placed speech.

"Because I knew all these girls were great 800m runners and I knew it would take something special.

"We had a plan - and I didn't follow that plan - halfway through the race I decided to run as fast as I could and hope nobody could keep up.

"All those girls out there are professionals.

"The top two and the girl who finished below are professional athletes, whereas I'm just a little studying to do a master's (degree).

"I'm doing athletics on the side so to be able to finish up there with the top girls in Europe and get a medal...unbelievable."

Expanding on the scale of her achievement, O’Connor was quoted on BBC Sport NI as follows: Honestly, I wasn't expecting to get a medal but I'm buzzing that I did.

"My plan was to go out and run as hard as I could. ..I really wanted a medal and I'm ecstatic that I managed to get it."

She added: "After the long jump I was a little upset...I had done four world-class performances and was still trailing.

"I knew all those girls had great 800s...I had a plan to go out and run as hard as I could and try not to be disappointed with myself.

"It was insane – four girls with those kinds of scores are unbelievable...I hope we push each other on.

"The World Championships are coming up soon so we'll see what happens at them."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​