World Athletics Championships: Historic heptathlon silver ‘hasn’t sunk in’ for Ireland’s Kate O’Connor

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.”