Kate O'Connor occupies second place in the women's heptathlon after the opening day at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, trailing Poland's Adrianna Sulek-Schubert by 42 points. O'Connor set personal bests in the 100m hurdles and 200m and equalled her high jump best of 1.86m before finishing the day with 3,926 points. Sulek-Schubert leads on 3,968, with the Netherlands' Sofie Dokter 24 points further back in third.
O'Connor ran 23.79 seconds in the 200m to close the gap heading into Saturday's final three events — long jump, javelin, and 800m.
Elsewhere, Andrew Coscoran advanced to the men's 1500m final, while Mark English claimed Ireland's first European gold in a men's individual event with victory in the 800m. At the European Aquatics Championships in Paris, Daniel Wiffen reached the 1500m freestyle final.