Kate O'Connor described her silver medal in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China on Friday as “madness”.
Speaking to Virgin Media News, the Dundalk resident said: “That's the word I keep saying over and over again.”
“It might take me a few hours or even days to fully realize it, but yes, I’m excited.”
“I always try to stay calm and not get too emotional. I was a little bit disappointed after the high jump… but I think that was the motivation to break my personal best. It was the only personal best I didn't break at the European Championships,” O'Connor added.
“I knew there was a PR and that high jump really motivated me to go out there and achieve what I was missing last time. And the long jump, oh my god, the long jump is something that I think will continue to amaze me for a long time, I feel like there was a lot going on there.”
“It was just nice to go out and repeat what I did a couple of weeks ago,” she said, referring to her bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn just 12 days ago, which made her the first Irish woman to win a senior all-around medal.
O'Connor started with a personal best of 8.30 seconds in the 60m hurdles, then cleared 1.81m in the high jump to become the best in that event, and also set another personal best of 14.64m in the shot put.
She then set two personal bests in the long jump, jumping 6.27m on her first attempt and then improving to 6.30m on her second.
Going into the 800m, which she won in Apeldoorn, O'Connor was in third place, within sight of the US's Talia Brooks, who was then just three points ahead.
In the end, she was significantly ahead of Brooks, who settled for bronze: O'Connor posted a time of 2:14.19.
O'Connor's total of 4,742 points was just below her European Indoor and Irish record of 4,781 points, while European Indoor Champion Saga Vanninen of Finland won with 4,821 points. Brooks finished third with 4,669 points.
Derval O'Rourke last won a medal for Ireland at the World Indoor Championships, winning gold in the 60m hurdles in Moscow in March 2006.
Sophie O'Sullivan produced a career-best performance but failed to progress in the women's 1500m, while third in his heat was not enough for Andrew Coscoran, who also failed to progress in the men's 1500m.
The race was won by Jacob Ingebrigtsen with a time of 3:39.80.
On Saturday, Coscoran will also compete in the 3000m, which will be the final, also featuring Ingebrigtsen.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
