Latest news with #KateOConnor
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ireland's Nicola Tuthill wins silver in the hammer at World University Games in Germany
The Irish athletics medal rush continues with Nicola Tuthill winning the silver medal in the hammer on the final day of action at the World University Games in Germany. The 21-year-old from Bandon in Cork displayed all her competitive spirit inside the Lohrheidestadion in Bochum, saving her best throws for the last three rounds, including a final effort of 69.98 metres. That was enough to earn Tuthill the silver medal behind Jie Zhao from China, who last summer won the Olympic bronze medal in Paris. Zhao was the only woman to exceed 70m, her best of 72.80m also coming with her last throw. Representing UCD, where she's studying teaching, Tuthill's silver medal comes four days after Kate O'Connor produced another groundbreaking display by winning gold in the heptathlon, a first multi-event medal for Ireland in the long history of the championships, and only the fifth gold medal for Ireland in the sport of athletics at this level. READ MORE Last Friday week, Tuthill also won the silver medal at the European Under-23 Championships in Bergen, Norway, throwing a best of 70.90m on that occasion. The gold medal in Bergen went to Aileen Kuhn from Germany, but she had to settle for fifth in Bochum, with her best of 67.02. Sara Sofia Killinen from Finland won bronze with a best of 67.80. Tuthill's silver medal in Bergen last weekend was among the five medals won by Ireland. Anika Thompson won gold in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000, Nick Griggs took silver in the 5,000m, and Eimear Maher also took bronze in the 1,500m. It makes for seven Irish athletics medals won in the last nine days alone. Earlier this season, Tuthill also won the under-23 hammer gold at the European Throwing cup in Nicosia, Cyprus, a first Irish title in that event, which has been running since 2001. Irish women's hammer record holder Eileen O'Keeffe also won silver at the World University Games back in 2007, with O'Keeffe's Irish record of 73.21m the obvious target for Tuthill over the coming years. Tuthill's lifetime best is 71.71m, which she threw last month in Finland to move second on the Irish all-time list. O'Connor improved her own Irish heptathlon record to 6,487 points at these World University Games, leaving her ranked fourth in the world this season, adding to her pentathlon bronze medal in the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, and then silver on the World Indoor stage in Nanjing, China Her next competition will be the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. Tuthill has also qualified in the hammer. Both athletes will compete at next weekend's Irish Track and Field Championships in Santry, O'Connor focusing on the javelin this time as one of her favoured individual events.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ireland's Nicola Tuthill wins bronze in the hammer at World University Games in Germany
The Irish athletics medal rush continues with Nicola Tuthill winning the silver medal in the hammer on the final day of action at the World University Games in Germany. The 21-year-old from Bandon in Cork displayed all her competitive spirit inside the Lohrheidestadion in Bochum, saving her best throws for the last three rounds, including a final effort of 69.98 metres. That was enough to earn Tuthill the silver medal behind Jie Zhao from China, who last summer won the Olympic bronze medal in Paris. Zhao was the only woman to exceed 70m, her best of 72.80m also coming with her last throw. Representing UCD, where she's studying teaching, Tuthill's silver medal comes four days after Kate O'Connor produced another groundbreaking display by winning gold in the heptathlon, a first multi-event medal for Ireland in the long history of the championships, and only the fifth gold medal for Ireland in the sport of athletics at this level. READ MORE Last Friday week, Tuthill also won the silver medal at the European Under-23 Championships in Bergen, Norway, throwing a best of 70.90m on that occasion. The gold medal in Bergen went to Aileen Kuhn from Germany, but she had to settle for fifth in Bochum, with her best of 67.02. Sara Sofia Killinen from Finland won bronze with a best of 67.80. Tuthill's silver medal in Bergen last weekend was among the five medals won by Ireland. Anika Thompson won gold in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000, Nick Griggs took silver in the 5,000m, and Eimear Maher also took bronze in the 1,500m. It makes for seven Irish athletics medals won in the last nine days alone. Earlier this season, Tuthill also won the under-23 hammer gold at the European Throwing cup in Nicosia, Cyprus, a first Irish title in that event, which has been running since 2001. Irish women's hammer record holder Eileen O'Keeffe also won silver at the World University Games back in 2007, with O'Keeffe's Irish record of 73.21m the obvious target for Tuthill over the coming years. Tuthill's lifetime best is 71.71m, which she threw last month in Finland to move second on the Irish all-time list. O'Connor improved her own Irish heptathlon record to 6,487 points at these World University Games, leaving her ranked fourth in the world this season, adding to her pentathlon bronze medal in the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, and then silver on the World Indoor stage in Nanjing, China Her next competition will be the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. Tuthill has also qualified in the hammer. Both athletes will compete at next weekend's Irish Track and Field Championships in Santry, O'Connor focusing on the javelin this time as one of her favoured individual events.
Irish Times
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
‘I'm not putting a limit on the score': Kate O'Connor switching back into heptathlon competition mode
Kate O'Connor is sitting in the relative cool of the shade, trackside in Monte Gordo, the beaming smile, though she is still a little red-faced, signalling her first training session of the day is already done. It's been 36 degrees all week in this pocket of the Algarve, injecting some mega warmth into her warm-weather training camp, and O'Connor will soon switch into competition mode. She is speaking via Zoom and, for the first time, she's ready to outline her plans since her breakthrough indoor performances back in March when, just 12 days apart, she won the pentathlon bronze medal in the European Indoor Championships and then silver on the world indoor stage. Those were the first senior medals won by any Irish athlete in a multi-event. O'Connor had already made a breakthrough in the women's heptathlon by winning a European under-20 silver back in 2019, before becoming Ireland's first representative in the Olympic heptathlon, in Paris last summer. The switch from the pentathlon indoors – five events spread across one day – to the heptathlon outdoors – seven events spread across two days – involves the addition of the 200m and the javelin, the latter being O'Connor's favourite event. After improving her Irish pentathlon record to 4,781 points, she's naturally confident of improving her heptathlon record of 6,297 points, set in Lana, Italy, in 2021. She's targeting the national javelin record too. READ MORE 'At the start of the year, I gave myself a couple of goals, and I broke them multiple times during indoors,' she says. 'My first barrier [in the heptathlon] is to break 6,500. With multi-events, it is just taking it one event at a time, and if I could get myself to the javelin with pretty good scores, then it's all to play for. We've done a lot of work on my 200m this year, I've got a lot quicker. So I'm really excited to run a 200 and see what I can do.' That first competition will come at the World University Games, being staged in five cities in the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany from July 16th-27th. It will be her sole heptathlon before the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, although she's targeting a few individual events at the national championships at the start of August. 'My obvious goal at the World Universities is to break the national record. If I finish, that should definitely happen. But I'm not putting a limit on the score I could do. Just go out and have a bit of fun, see where I am. Kate O'Connor with her European indoors pentathlon bronze medal and world indoors pentathlon silver medal this week. Photograph: Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile 'I think I will put together a pretty big score, but I obviously I have to go out and do it. But I'm really excited for to put a marker in my own head and then figure out what I can do for world championships, which is obviously the main aim for me this year. We're just trying to keep everything contained.' Since her indoor success, there have been other changes in the life of the 24-year-old from Dundalk. She has recently signed a sponsorship deal with Adidas, with her father and coach Micheal now also acting as her agent. And she's poised to go full-time once her master's in communications and public relations at Ulster University is complete. 'I'm in the middle of my dissertation [examining the visibility of the World Athletics Championships in 2023], it's not due until September. But training this year has been a little different in that, touch wood, I've never had any injuries or niggles. Or anything too bad. 'So we've managed to keep building all year, which is nice. After indoors I took a few weeks break, then I was able to keep building from where I left off. We're trying not to go too mad, not measuring absolutely everything, just focus on the technical stuff that we normally would, and keep building.'
