Give it up, once again, for Kate O’Connor. Now a magnificent seven-time championship medal winner, all won in succession. This time, a European heptathlon gold wrapped up in convincing style.
Was it ever in doubt? Such was the Irish presence at the Alexander Stadium on Saturday night, it felt as good as a home victory, and anything less than gold might have been a disappointment. That’s the level of class at which she’s now operating.
If O’Connor’s golden performance delivered on her own expectations, few in Birmingham expected Andrew Coscoran to come flying through to win 1,500m bronze just over an hour later. The roar which greeted his awesome finish was still ringing in his ears when he realised he’d snatched a medal, moving from fifth to third in the thrilling homestretch battle.
Coscoran becomes the first Irish medal winner at a European Championships in the men’s 1,500m since Eamonn Coghlan back in 1978, continuing the remarkable Irish medal streak so far this week. And it’s not over yet.
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O’Connor already had some breathing space going into her final event, the 800m, 51 points clear of Emma Oosterwegel from the Netherlands. It was worth about three-and-a-half seconds over the two-lap race. Oosterwegel did try to run the legs out of O’Connor, winning in 2:10.87, but the 25-year-old Dundalk woman held on for third, clocking 2:11.74. The gold medal and the European title was all hers.
“Crossing the line and then realising that you’re going to have the gold medal wrapped around your neck is just incredible, insane,” said O’Connor of claiming Ireland’s seventh European gold.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid, and a couple of years ago I would never have thought that I would be standing in this position, European gold medallist. It’s surreal, crazy, amazing and exciting.
“It’s been a rollercoaster the last two days. But I think sometimes competitions that are up and down like that make the medal even sweeter. Standing on the line of the 800m, I was nervous, I’m sure everybody else was nervous as well, because it’s a tough run out there.”
The Irish crowd had taken over the back bend, and O’Connor promptly went over the greet them, embracing her father and coach Michael along the way. As is tradition, O’Connor then joined the entire heptathlon field for a lap of honour, repeatedly stopping to embrace Irish supporters.
“I think with 50 metres to go, I knew I had enough in me to just kind of stick it, not let Emma get three seconds ahead of me. And I could really just like soak up the cheers in the last couple of metres, which was really nice.
“Because for the last few days, I’ve been trying to be extremely focused from start to finish. It was probably the first moment where I could appreciate the cheers and the roars, soak up the fact that I was about to become European champion.”
Her final tally of 6,751 points, surpassing her national record of 6,714 she set when winning silver at last year’s World Championships. The Birmingham tally won’t count for record purposes however, due to the high wind readings in the sprints and jumps. The Dutch duo of Emma Oosterwegel and Sofie Dokter both set lifetime bests to win silver (6,713) and bronze (6,664) respectively, but both were unable to gain the necessary ground over O’Connor in the 800m.
“I’m probably quite difficult on myself,” O’Connor added. “I know that it’s extremely difficult to put together seven great performances. But I think that it’s great that I’m standing here saying that I want to be better. I know I can be better, and I will be better. I just want to keep chipping away. Hopefully, at the Olympics I’ll have a perfect heptathlon. That would be an ideal time, wouldn’t it?”
Later in the evening, Coscoran made up a remarkable amount of ground in the last 150m in the 1,500m final. Coming off the final bend, he was back in seventh but surged into fifth down the straight. Then he chased flat out all the way to the line, snatching third from Britain’s Jake Hayward. Stefan Nillessen from the Netherlands struck gold in 3:35.70, with Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom second in 3:36.16 ahead of Coscoran in 3:36.24.
“This is the dream - I’ve been working so hard for this for so long,” said the 30-year-old from Balbriggan.
“It’s a split-second decision on the back straight to go up the inside or outside. It opened up inside and I made the decision to go. It’s a risk, it sometimes doesn’t open up, but this time it did, and here I am with a bronze medal. I knew my last 100m was going to be good, but I didn’t know if I’d be in the right position to use it.”
O’Connor becomes only the fifth Irish woman to win an individual European Championship medal – joining Sonia O’Sullivan, Ciara Mageean, Derval O’Rourke and Rhasidat Adeleke – and only the fourth Irish athlete to win a European outdoor title.
O’Connor also fulfilled a lifetime ambition: “It’s kind of strange, because you’re going around [on the lap of honour with all the competitors] and I do have flashbacks to me kind of going around and being in awe of the girls that have won gold, silver, or bronze. It is definitely surreal whenever you’re looking up at the crowd and people are shouting for you and want photos with me, and the girls are coming up and saying congratulations.
“But I’ve grown up with all those girls that I’m competing with. There is genuine respect between us, because I know how much work they put in. But I think they can also appreciate the leaps and bounds that I’ve come on. And when they come up and congratulate me, I can actually feel they really mean it.
“But I’m like a different person. Every competition has been different, and I’ve been learning so much with each one. I think that every experience has made me a better athlete, I think that that’s why I was able to navigate these last two days so well, because of the experience that I’ve had from every other championship. I think that I’m probably in my prime, which hopefully will last a long time. Fingers crossed. I have a lot of plans and expectations for myself.”
Jack O’Leary finished an admirable 10th in the 10,000m in 28:24.89, the gold medal going to Sweden’s Andreas Almgren in a championship record of 27:23.44.
And for the first time at the same championships, Ireland qualified teams in both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay finals. Bori Akinola, Sean Aigboboh, Marcus Lawler and Israel Olatunde ending up eighth in 40.26, not helped by a poor first baton exchange, while the women’s quartet of Lucy-May Sleeman, Ciara Neville, Sarah Leahy and Lauren Roy finished seventh in 44.18.
On Sunday morning, hopes that Irish athletes might make an impression on the marathon slowly faded around the streets of Birmingham, Paul O’Donnell the sole finisher with his 43rd place in the men’s race.
Fionnuala McCormack had started the women’s race with some medal aspirations, after finishing ninth in the World Championships marathon in Tokyo last September. Running cautiously early on, passing the 10km in 24th position, the Wicklow athlete was forced to drop out shortly afterwards when feeling unwell.
The women’s gold medal was won by Alisa Vainio from Finland, who smashed the championship record with her front-running victory in 2:22:26.
David McGlynn from Waterford made it to the 25km mark in the men’s race before also retiring, while Cork’s Ryan Creech withdrew before the start with a “minor medical issue”, according to Athletics Ireland.
That meant O’Donnell was the only one of the four to make it home, the Dubliner clocking 2:20:41. The European title went to Amanal Petros of Germany, who recorded a championship record of 2:09.11.
