European Athletics Championships: O’Connor leads heptathlon before 800m – KJT off the pace

Ireland’s Kate O’Connor moved into pole position for heptathlon gold with one event remaining at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, where Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson is out of medal contention.

Newry-born O’Connor entered Saturday morning in third place after four events, just 42 points behind overnight leader Adrianna Sulek-Schubert, and her personal best form continued in the long jump with a leap of 6.55m.

The 25-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist followed up with 50.16m in the javelin to take her overall total to 5,812 points, 51 ahead of Netherlands’ Emma Oosterwegel (5,761) with another Dutch athlete, Sofie Dokter, in third (5,741).

Poland’s Sulek-Schubert dropped to seventh after a disappointing start to Saturday.

Johnson-Thompson’s struggles continued following an injury-hit build-up to the championships.

The 33-year-old entered Saturday 324 points off the pace in 16th and managed just 5.77m in the long jump before throwing 36.92m in the javelin.

That meant the two-time world champion drifted to 19th place, 780 points behind O’Connor.

Her GB team-mate Jade O’Dowda sat 13th, 491 points in arrears of the pace-setting Ireland athlete.

The heptathlon concludes on Saturday evening with the 800m at 19:45 BST.