Kate O’Connor claimed a first gold medal for Team Ireland at the 2025 World University Games on July 24th 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.
Ireland’s athletics success at the 32nd World University Games in Germany continued, with hammer thrower Nicola Tuthill (UCD AC) securing a brilliant silver medal — just days after Kate O’Connor’s gold in the heptathlon.
Tuthill delivered an outstanding final throw of 69.98m to confirm her second place finish behind gold medallist Zhao Jie (CHN) who threw 72.80m. Speaking after the event, Tuthill stated how she found her rhythm as the rounds progressed, adding another prestigious international medal to her growing collection following her silver medal at the European U23 Championships just last week.
“I’m delighted — it’s my first medal on the world stage”, said Tuthill after the final. “And to come off winning silver at the U23 European Championships last week, it’s very special. It was somewhat of a stressful competition because some of my first throws were some of the worst I’ve had all season, and my last five competitions have all been over 70 meters, so I was glad to see it slowly improve in the final — and thank God it did.”
Tuthill’s silver adds to Ireland’s proud athletics history at the World University Games, joining a list of medallists that includes athletics greats like Sonia O’Sullivan, Ronnie Delany, and Thomas Barr.
The medals secured at the World University Games continue the momentum of what has been a remarkable two weeks for Irish athletics, with ELEVEN international medals returning home across the World University Games (Gold & Silver), European U23 Championships (Gold, Silver x 2, Bronze x2), and European Youth Olympics (Bronze x 4).
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