by Stuart WeirWomen’s Pentathlon
The Women’s Pentathlon had a very European feel to it. Of the 14 athletes, there were 2 Americans, an Australian and the rest were European. The result was
1 Saga Vanninen (Finland) 4821
2 Katy O’Connor (Ireland) 4742
3 Taliyah Brooks (USA) 4669
Brooks led after the first two events (60H and HJ) but after the third event (shot) the order changed and the three medalists emerged in the final finishing order and remained so throughout the final two events.
Vanninen had won the European Indoor Championship Pentathlon two weeks ago with 4922 when O’Connor was third with 4781 points. The winner commented “This has been a big dream for me, and now it’s come true. I’ve been having a really good training season, so I knew that I was in good shape. This will help with my confidence, and of course The outdoor worlds in Tokyo is my biggest goal.”
O’Connor, who admitted that indoors was never her favorite competition, commented: “It was really tough to come here from Apeldoorn [European Indoors]. I’ve never done two events so close together and with the huge time zone difference, it was a definitely a challenge. But there are a lot of European girls here today so we’re all in the same boat. Winning this medal and the medal a couple of weeks ago will really push multi events forward in Ireland and let younger athletes see what the options are in athletics. I really want to make more people do field events and multi events”.
O’Connor, whose strongest event is the javelin, which is in the heptathlon but not the pentathlon, was pleased that “my weaker events have gotten a bit stronger”. The athlete who is coached by her dad, commented “There are not many father-daughters who get to experience this. This medal is mine and also partly his.”
Born in Northern Ireland, O’Connor is eligible to compete for Ireland or Great Britain. She competes internationally for Ireland – including the 2024 Olympic and 2023 World Championship heptathlon – but also represented Northern Ireland at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games. She is a student at University of Texas.
Taliyah Books who represented USA at the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympics was delighted to make the podium: “This is my first global medal, so indoor world championships bronze medallist sounds good. I was really happy with my shot put, my jumps were not as good as I would have wanted them to be but it was a long travel with time difference so running 800 meters at 9.15pm was hard for me”.
Combined events can be marginalized in our sport, I was delighted to see them getting good profile twice this month.
