Ireland’s World Athletics Championships silver medallist Kate O’Connor received a hero’s welcome in her hometown of Dundalk on Wednesday evening.
The World Heptathlon silver medallist strode into the hall of her old school, St Vincent’s Secondary, to the triumphant sound of a brass band.
The large cheering crowd included throngs of children from her athletics club, Dundalk St Gerard’s, and pupils from the school.
Fintan Reilly, deputy president of Athletics Ireland, Paul Cheshire, chairman of St Gerard’s AC, along with Ms O’Connor’s father and coach, Michael, joined her on stage, with St Gerard’s PRO Paul Martin acting as emcee.
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Ms O’Connor’s mother, Valerie and her grandmother, Madeleine were also in the crowd.
Ms O’Connor told the wellwishers while she was in Japan she knew there were lots of people excited with what she had achieved, but it was only in coming to events such as this she realised there were “so many people interested in what I’ve done”.
Alluding to the hectic nature of the heptathlon, she said: “For me it was like one event after another. On the Friday night [day one of the heptathlon] I was going to bed at 1am and then had to be up at 6am on the Saturday.”
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The heptathlon consists of seven disciplines across a two-day period, including 100m hurdles, 200m race, 800m race, high jump, long jump and shot-put.
Ms O’Connor, in winning the coveted World Championship silver medal, also set a new Irish record of 6,714 points.
Mr Martin told Ms O’Connor the whole club, town and country were “enormously proud” of her phenomenal achievement and also expressed his appreciation to her for “how big a role model” she was for all the young people.
Ms O’Connor admitted that she felt “a little bit more pressure” in these World Championships and she had to hold her nerve.
“If I was offered one medal this year, I would have jumped on it, but to win four medals at international events ..,” she said.
Ms O’Connor also reflected on the exalted group of Irish woman World athletics medallists that she has joined, namely Sonia O’Sullivan and Derval O’Rourke: “To get messages from these people, these were my idols growing up, but now to be in the same sentence as them ...”
Ms O’Connor said that the biggest advice she had for the young children in attendance was “if you have a dream, keep dreaming” and that “you never achieve anything without working very hard”.
One young girl present to welcome her idol home was Niamh Ryan (9) from Carlingford. “I’m very proud of her. I’ve met her at Glenmore Athletics track at Bush Post-primary school,” said Niamh.
Ms O’Connor’s father Michael said she is getting an MRI on her right knee on Thursday as a result of strain she picked up during the heptathlon’s long jump section and they will then put a plan in place.
“She was meant to stay in Japan for a couple of weeks,” he said, but it was decided that the best thing to do was to come home to get the knee assessed.
Mr O’Connor also emphasised the importance of investing in resources including in coaches and that there are “some world class coaches” in Ireland.
“I’ve been so lucky in coaching, I’ve been surrounded by world class coaches. It’s very easy to access information from other people, the hardest thing is to pick up the phone,” he said.
