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Despite her strong performance in the Netherlands, O’Connor was still outside the medal placings heading into the 800 metres.. <\/p>\n
The Newry-born athlete, who won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland in 2022, put in a storming run to win the race and edge O’Dowda to third place overall. <\/p>\n
O’Dowda is a former training partner of O’Connor, who said they had a conversation before the 800m that they would be “friends no matter what happens”.<\/p>\n
O’Connor set a new Irish record of 4781, surpassing her own tally by 98 points, as she won bronze behind Finland’s Saga Vanninen (4922) and Dutch athlete Sofie Doktor (4826).<\/p>\n
“To be honest, no,” O’Connor said when asked if she expected to win a medal. <\/p>\n
“After the long jump I was a little upset. I had done four world class performances and was still trailing. I knew all those girls had great 800s. <\/p>\n
“I had a plan to go out and run as hard as I could and try not to be disappointed with myself.<\/p>\n
“It was insane. Four girls with those kinds of scores are unbelievable. So to be part of that is amazing, to be part of the medals is even better.<\/p>\n
“I hope we push each other on. The world championships are coming up soon so we’ll see what happens at them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n