O'Connor savours silver after 'whirlwind' Worlds

Ireland's Kate O'Connor fought back the tears as she celebrated her historic heptathlon silver medal at the end of a "whirlwind" World Athletics Championships.

O'Connor recorded five personal bests across the two-day event to secure Ireland's first world track and field medal since Sonia O'Sullivan's 5,000m gold in 1995 and first global outdoor medal in the multi-events.

A stunning performance in Tokyo caps a memorable year for the Newry-born 24-year-old after claiming pentathlon bronze at the European Championships, pentathlon silver at the World Indoors and outdoor heptathlon gold at the World University Games.

"I don't know when it'll sink in, to be honest," said O'Connor, who covered her face in disbelief while lying on the track after her silver was confirmed at the end of the 800m race.

"The last few days were a whirlwind, I'll probably get emotional soon.

"I've just had the best year ever. The work's that gone into it behind the scenes has been insane."

After capturing lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles, high jump and 200m to establish herself as a medal contender on Friday, O'Connor faced adversity on Saturday when she injured her knee during the long jump.

The injury restricted her to just one practice throw before the javelin.

However, she used "a lot of positive thoughts" to overcome the pain barrier and post a personal best 53.06m throw before securing silver with an 800m PB of two minutes, 9.56 seconds.

Her 6,714-point haul was enough to finish behind American gold medallist Anna Hall and ahead of Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson and American Taliyah Brooks, who shared bronze.

"Today was a really tough day, I actually hurt my knee during the long jump so the last two event were a bit like 'put your head down and see what happens'," she added.

"I've a great team around me that fill me with confidence and let me know what I've been doing in training day in, day out. I took one practice throw before that javelin competition and I just had to believe I could do it.

"I'm a competitor. I was always going to fight until the very end and I'm just so happy with myself that I managed to do it."

In the build-up to the Worlds, O'Connor said she was ready to embrace the heightened expectations she placed on herself at the end of a "dream" season.

And silver represents a significant leap forward on the global stage after finishing 14th on her Olympic debut in Paris last year.

Having secured Ireland's first World Athletics Championships medal since Rob Heffernan's 50km race walk gold in 2013, she was able to celebrate the moment with her father and coach Michael O'Connor inside the Japan National Stadium.

"I just saw him at the end. I know he said earlier in the year that it was probably the proudest day of his life, but I would say that today maybe topped that!

"It's so nice that we get to work so closely together, travel the world together and win major medals together.

"It's a very unique and special thing that we get to do. I think more lately we've been enjoying the whole journey we have together because I know that sport doesn't last forever and we're just trying to relish the moments."