Kate O’Connor claimed a first gold medal for Team Ireland at the 2025 World University Games yesterday in Lohrheidestadion, Bochum, by winning the Heptathlon in a new national record of 6487 points.
Speaking afterwards O’Connor expressed her delight: “I’m in the shape of my life at the moment, and to go out here and do this on a global stage, I’m really happy with that. To put on the Irish vest here and represent my country and Ulster University who have supported me so much over the years is fantastic.”
Overnight O’Connor led the competition on 3737 points and began her morning in the Long Jump, jumping 6.15 metres, to finish that event of the competition joint first with Australian Emelia Surch. Both claimed 896 points. This left O’Connor 153 points in front after five events.
In event 6 of the competition, the javelin, Kate finished 1st again with a throw of 51.87m, some three metres further than anyone else in the field. The final event of the competition was the 800 metres and O’Connor finished second in the third and final heat with a PB time of 2:10.46.
O’Connor becomes the third Irish woman to win a World University Gold Medal following in the footsteps of athletics legend Sonia O’Sullivan (1500m, Sheffield 1991) and Danielle McVeigh (golf, Bangkok 2007). Ireland’s last gold medal in the World University Games was won by swimmer Shane Ryan in 2017 in Taipei.
Elsewhere at the games yesterday, Lauren Roy finished in 11th place overall running a time of 24.07 in her semi-final.
