O'Connor clinches silver medal at World Indoors

Ireland's Kate O'Connor remains in a strong position to win a medal at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing after producing another personal best in the long jump.

O'Connor, 24, has dropped from second to third place but is 178 points ahead of fourth-placed US athlete Timara Chapman going into the concluding 800m which takes place at 13:08 GMT.

Chapman's team-mate Taliyah Brooks edged three points ahead of the Irish woman following a long jump where Newry-born athlete produced personal best of 6.30m and 6.32m.

That was O'Connor's third personal best in four events as she added five centimetres to the mark she produced earlier this month when clinching the bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships in the Netherlands.

O'Connor produced a personal best of 8.30 seconds in the opening 60m hurdles and a strong performance in the high jump was followed by another lifetime best of 14.64 metres in the shot put.

The Newry-born Ireland athlete is on 3838 points, three behind Brooks, and 94 adrift of Finland's European Indoors winner Saga Vanninen who looks on course for another gold medal.

O'Connor and Chapman led the high jump standings with marks of 1.81m which was 0.03m down on the Irish woman's personal best set at the European Indoors.

O'Connor won a Commonwealth Games heptathlon silver medal for Northern Ireland in 2022 before producing her major international breakthrough earlier this month in Apeldoorn.

The Northern Ireland athlete's 60m hurdles and shot put performances were improvements of 0.01 seconds and 10 centimetres on her previous lifetime bests.

Andrew Coscoran and Sophie O'Sullivan both missed out on clinching final spots in their 1500m events.

Coscoran, who broke the Irish indoor and outdoor mile records last month, finished third in his first-round heat won by Jakob Ingebrigtsen but it wasn't enough to progress as the Norwegian star (3:39.80) and Austria's Raphael Pallitsch (3:40.08) took the two qualifying spots.

The Balbriggan man left himself with two much do in the closing stages when Ingebrigtsen surged past him from last place to lead as the bell sounded and the Irishman was 0.69 seconds behind the Austrian.

O'Sullivan produced a personal best of 4:16.68 in her heat but that was over three seconds outside a qualification spots as Ethiopia's Diribe Weltejl (4:12.25), USA's Heather MacLean (4:13.26) and Portugal's Salome Afonso (4:13.39) progressed to the final.

Coscoran has also entered the 3000m, which is a straight final on Saturday with James Gormley running in the Ireland vest, while Sarah Healy will be a strong Irish medal hope in Saturday's women's 3000m final after winning the European title two weeks ago.

Sarah Lavin will be the last of the six-strong Ireland team in action when she competes in the women's 60m hurdles on Sunday after finishing fourth at the European Indoors.