Kate O'Connor has completed a remarkable championship double by winning the European heptathlon title in Birmingham, little more than two weeks after taking Commonwealth gold for Northern Ireland.
The Newry-born athlete secured the European crown at Alexander Stadium on Saturday, adding another major honour to a run of medals that has established her among the leading multi-event competitors in world athletics.
O'Connor arrived in Birmingham after winning all three second-day events in the Commonwealth heptathlon in Glasgow. Victories in the long jump, javelin and concluding 800 metres had carried her decisively to that title before attention turned to the seven-event European programme.
Her 2026 outdoor success builds on a breakthrough previous season in which she claimed world heptathlon silver and set an Irish record. She also entered this summer as a world indoor bronze medallist in the pentathlon.
The European title gives O'Connor two championship gold medals within the same summer and strengthens her place in Northern Ireland's sporting year. The next stage of her programme will be shaped around recovery from the two multi-event championships and the longer build towards the 2028 Olympic Games.