Kate O’Connor in heptathlon gold medal position with one event left at European Championships

Kate O’Connor is within touching distance of the European Championship gold medal in the heptathlon after another strong performance in the javelin, propelling her into first place with just the 800m to come.The Dundalk star produced a best throw of 50.16m in the first round, bringing her overall tally to 5,812 points – and 51 points clear of rival Emma Oosterwegel from the Netherlands.That gives O’Connor plenty of breathing space going into the 800m this evening, set for 7.45pm. Although Oosterwegel does have the faster personal best, she would need to beat O’Connor by more that three seconds to leap above her and into the gold medal position. Oosterwegel is currently on 5,761 points, with the other Dutch medal hope Sofie Dokter third on 5,707, some 105 points off O’Connor’s total.READ MOREO’Connor ran a superb 800m when winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow just over two weeks ago. If she can come even close to her personal best of 2:09.56, set when winning the silver medal at the World Championships last year, the gold medal will surely be hers. She’s also on course to smash her Irish record of 6,714 points.The javelin is considered her best event, and although her 50.16 was short of her personal best of 53.06, it was plenty good to put her in pole position, after also setting a personal best in the long jump of 6.55m earlier on Saturday morning.Saturday evening session - Irish in action7.45pm: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon 800m8.25pm: Jack O’Leary, men’s 10,000m9.07pm: Andrew Coscoran, men’s 1,500m9.33pm: Men’s 4x100m final9.48pm: Women’s 4x100m final“I’m feeling pretty positive, I’m in a strong enough position,” she said. “Now it’s just time to rest, relax, and think tactics in a couple of hours. I’m happy with my long jump. Javelin, I was trying to navigate the winds, but I can’t really make any excuses, I just didn’t execute well.“I’ve got a healthy-ish lead, but I’ll have a job to do later. It’s going to be really stiff, I knew that coming in here. I think I’ve given myself every opportunity to do what I came here to do, I’ve just got one more event to go to try to do it. I’ll give it my all.”The Irish 4x100m relay team celebrate their progression to the finals. Photograph: INPHO/Morgan Treacy There were also two excellent Irish performances in the heats of the 4x100m, as both quartets booked their place in Saturday night’s final, the women setting a new national record of 43.13 in the process. The Irish quartet of Lucy-May Sleeman, Ciara Neville, Sarah Leahy and Lauren Roy nailed fourth place in their heat, after a series of slick baton exchanges.Only the first three in each heat, plus the two fastest times, progressed, but the Irish did enough to secure the second of those fastest times. The expectation now is that Rhasidat Adeleke will take over one of the Irish legs in the final, thus boosting their medal chances.The Irish baton exchanges were excellent, and although there was a review by the track judges, all safely within the changeover zones. Italy took the win in 42.22, just ahead of Great Britain, but Ireland have put themselves into the final, and in any relay event, that always creates the possibility of a medal.Then came the Irish men’s quartet of Toluwabori Akinola, Seán Aigboboh, Marcus Lawler and Israel Olatunde, who also finished fourth in a season best of 39.13 seconds, ranking them sixth best across the heats.It’s the first time Ireland will have two finalists in the 4x100m at the same championships, a further reflection of the recent improvements in the shorter relay event.Sophie O'Sullivan and Sarah Healy after the 1,500m semi-final. Photograph: INPHO/Morgan Treacy Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan also both impressed when qualifying for Sunday’s final of the 1,500m, nailing second and fifth respectively in their heat, and appearing to have plenty more in reserve.Healy was back on the track four days after her fourth-place finish in the 5,000m. Returning to her specialist event, she ran a composed race, moving into second place down the home stretch to finish alongside Patricia Silva from Portugal, who clocked 4:08.10, to Healy’s 4:08.12.Only the top six from the two heats progressed, and O’Sullivan did have to work a little harder down the homestretch to move into fifth, having lost some ground around the top bend. But she was finishing just as fast as anyone, and both Irish women look well capable of getting into the medal mix on Sunday night. Laura Muir from Great Britain, the 2022 champion, could only manage eighth in the same race, and didn’t progress. Jodie McCann was 13th in heat one, running 4:14.63.Healy did lose her stride briefly in the first lap, but quickly recovered: “I don’t know what happened and my face looked at the floor for a second, but I stayed on two feet,” said Healy. “I was definitely worried about [the last 100m] having done a 5K a few days ago but today I felt great on that last lap.“I took two days to recover and initially, it was a lot of frustration and annoyance at myself. But then I started to look at it as, I’ve had far worse results than fourth.”Earlier on Friday, in the heart of Birmingham, David Kenny claimed sixth place in the half marathon race walk. The Kerry athlete was sitting in medal contention through the first half of the race, finishing in a personal best time of 1:24:45. Oisin Lane also performed admirably to finish 11th in 1:27.09, also a personal best.Kenny, of Farranfore Maine Valley AC, is coached by former Irish race walker Jamie Costin, while Lane is coached by his father Micheal. The gold medal was won by Paul McGrath from Spain, who has a Scottish father, a Spanish mother, and Irish grandparents. His time was 1:23:23.