Paul McNamara: 'We’re in a better place than we have been for a long time, the aspiration for global medals is very real'

From a team of six, they recorded three top-six finishes and brought home one medal – silver for Kate O’Connor in the pentathlon. You have to go back 19 years for a similar showing, when Derval O’Rourke won 60m hurdles gold in Moscow, James Nolan finished sixth in the 1500m and Alistair Cragg took fourth over 3000m. There’s been eight editions in the intervening years and Ireland won zero medals and recorded just three top-six finishes at them: David Gillick finishing fifth in 2010, with Sarah Lavin and the women’s 4x400m both fifth in Glasgow last year.

Factor in the absences, for various reasons, of Rhasidat Adeleke, Ciara Mageean and Mark English – all of whom would have had medal potential – and it speaks to a depth of impressive quality.

“We’re in a better place than we have been for a long time, the aspiration for global medals is very real,” says McNamara. “But you’re not relying on one, possibly even two athletes, to be those medal shots anymore.” 

The highlight arrived on Friday, Kate O’Connor claiming Ireland’s first ever global medal in the multi-events, her tally of 4742 points winning silver in the pentathlon. Given the 9000km journey to Nanjing, the accompanying jetlag and the physical and emotional comedown after her European indoor medal 12 days prior, this was an even more impressive performance than the 4781 she scored in Apeldoorn.

“It’s an attritional event,” says McNamara. “To come here again was a brave decision by Kate and Michael (O’Connor, her father and coach). Having already posted a big event prior to European Indoors, you’re looking at three big performances in a very short indoor season. She was immense.” 

Having taken a giant leap forward in Apeldoorn, setting personal bests in four of the five events, O’Connor brought more of the same to Nanjing, breaking PB’s in the 60m hurdles, shot put and long jump. “She’s moved on in so many ways,” says McNamara. “She’s in a very different place to where she was at any point up to now.” One of O’Connor’s goals this year is to become a 6,500-point heptathlete, and she looks well on track to achieve it. That’s a score that’d usually have her top six at world or Olympic level.

Andrew Coscoran and Sarah Healy were in the medal hunt on the penultimate lap of their 3000m finals, both finishing sixth – their best result at a global championship – after not quite having the gears to go with the world’s best. “Sarah delivered a really solid champs and Andrew has had back-to-back champs he can be proud of,” says McNamara. “Both have reasserted themselves to a degree – they’ve moved on.” 

James Gormley (3000m) and Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m) were left well behind in their debuts at this event, with McNamara saying they’ll have “gained significantly from their experience” as they look to outdoors. There was disappointment too for Sarah Lavin, who was chasing her fifth straight major final in the 60m hurdles.

Lavin has long highlighted the first hurdle as her weakness and in Nanjing it was her outright enemy, a trail-leg blunder ending her chance in the semi-final where she trailed in seventh in 8.14 seconds. A repeat of her recent 7.92 would have seen her make the final and been good enough for seventh.

And with that, the focus turns to outdoors, with a strong Irish contingent going to China in May for the World Relays in Guangzhou and the big goal for the year being September’s World Championships in Tokyo. “It’s a long way out so to go into specifics is tricky, but we’ll go into Tokyo probably in a better place than even Paris or Budapest,” says McNamara. “And they were both very positive global champs.”