After her perfect record of four medals from her four multi-event competitions last year, Kate O’Connor will once again lead the Irish medal challenge at the World Indoor Championships later this month.
O’Connor is part of the 12-strong Irish team named for Toruń in Poland, where the championships take place from March 20th-22nd. Four of those athletes are provisionally selected pending confirmation of the World Athletics event quota rankings on Wednesday.
After winning pentathlon silver at the 2025 World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, O’Connor went on to win gold in the heptathlon at the World University Games, before adding another heptathlon silver at the World Championships in Tokyo last September.
O’Connor also won bronze in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships this time last year, and the 25-year-old from Dundalk St Gerard’s AC has already stepped up her performances this season, setting personal bests over the 60m hurdles (8.21 seconds) and long jump (6.50m) at the National Indoor Championships earlier this month.
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Five-time European medallist Mark English also heads to Toruń with medal aspirations, after twice lowering his own Irish indoor 800m record this season, running 1:44.23 in Ostrava. English turns 33 next week but also enjoyed the best season of his life last summer.
Andrew Coscoran got the backing of Athletics Ireland for the 3,000m, ahead of Darragh McElhinney, where he will join national champion Nick Griggs. McElhinney finished ahead of Coscoran at the National Championships after Cocoran fell around the final bend. But critically for Coscoran, he had the automatic qualifying time, his 7:30.97, the fastest of the three Irish runners in contention.
Griggs ran 7:32.79 in January, also an automatic qualifying time, and while McElhinney ran 7:36.83, putting himself within the qualifying quota, only two athletes per event can be selected by each country. Coscoran’s experience of making the World Championships 1,500m final last year also stood to him.
The event in Toruń will be a straight 15-man final, and Coscoran and Griggs are ranked fourth and sixth fastest of the times run so far this year.
Maeve O’Neill (800m), Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles), Bori Akinola and Lauren Roy (both 60m) had also secured the automatic qualifying times, with both O’Neill and Roy also set to compete at this weekend’s US collegiate NCAA championships in Arkansas.
O’Neill made a huge breakthrough last month when lowering the Irish indoor 800m record to 2:00.33. Akinola and Roy have also run lifetime bests in recent weeks, Akinola breaking the Irish indoor 60m record previously held by Israel Olatunde, when running 6.54, with Roy clocking 7.19 on the NCAA collegiate circuit for Tarleton State University, in Texas.
The four athletes provisionally selected are Ciara Neville (60m), Emma Moore (800m), James Gormley (1,500m) and Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump). All four could be within the qualifying quota for their event once World Athletics confirm the final adjustment of places on Wednesday. Ndudi is also set to compete at the NCAA championships this weekend, after improving the Irish indoor long jump record last month.
Lavin has been a World Indoor finalist twice before in the 60m hurdles, with similar ambitions this time, before all eyes turn to O’Connor, the five-event pentathlon taking place throughout the last day, Sunday, where she’s set to renew her rivalry with Anna Hall from the US, who won heptathlon gold in Tokyo.
“This is an exciting team with real prospects for medal success,” said Athletics Ireland high-performance director Paul McNamara. “Kate’s achievement in Nanjing last year has set a bar for what Irish athletes can achieve at these championships, and we travel to Poland with real intent.”
Ireland team for World Indoor Athletics Championships, Toruń, Poland, March 20th- 22nd
Kate O’Connor: Pentathlon (Dundalk St. Gerard’s AC)
Mark English: 800m (Finn Valley AC)
Maeve O’Neill: 800m (Doheny AC)
Andrew Coscoran: 3,000m (Star of the Sea AC)
Nick Griggs: 3,000m (Candour Track Club)
Sarah Lavin: 60m Hurdles (Emerald AC)
Bori Akinola: 60m (UCD AC)
Lauren Roy: 60m (Fast Twitch AC)
Provisional Selections (pending confirmation from World Athletics)
Ciara Neville: 60m (Emerald AC)
Emma Moore: 800m (Galway City Harriers)
James Gormley: 1,500m (Carmen Runners)
Elizabeth Ndudi: Long Jump (Dundrum South Dublin)
