ATHLETICS | Kate on the nominations list for a place at the Commonwealth Games

St Gerard’s AC star has enjoyed a memorable year

Dundalk St Gerard’s AC’s Kate O’Connor is one of 15 athletes who are set to be nominated for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia by Athletics Northern Ireland.

Officials from Athletics Northern Ireland met on Sunday to decide on the provisional nominations and adjudicate on the order.

The nominations will be forwarded to the NI Commonwealth Games Council this week and will need to be ratified by the Commonwealth Games body in January.

Kate, who qualifies for the Commonwealth Games through her grandmother, has been nominated for the Heptathlon event and is third on the list behind Ciara Mageenan (1500m) and Dempsey McGuigan (Hammer).

The St Vincent’s student has enjoyed a superb year. Representing Ireland, she finished third at the European Combined Events Team Championships, which were held in Spain back in late June.

She backed that up by finishing in eighth place at the European U20 Athletics Championships in Grosseto, Italy in July, her points tally of 5,759 a new European youth record!

On the domestic front, Kate has also set three national youth records this year in Heptathlon, Long Jump and Javelin.