Team Northern Ireland heptathlete Kate O'Connor tells BBC Sport NI of her joy at winning the event at the Commonwealth Games as she collects her first senior outdoor gold medal.

"I'm not turning up to championships to come second and third, I want to be top." She was on the podium plenty of times in a breakthrough 2025, but not in a senior event with a gold medal around her neck. The 25-year-old claimed silver in both the World indoor and outdoor Championships as well as bronze in the European indoors. On Wednesday, after two remarkable days of the heptathlon, she completed that mission and scooped her biggest prize to date, Team Northern Ireland's first gold of the Glasgow Games and the country's first in athletics since 1986. On Thursday evening at Scotstoun Stadium she will finally stand top of the podium and receive that gold medal. "It's all still a bit of a whirlwind. The last two days were really tough but I enjoyed today. I showed the competitive side of me which I had to do because people were nipping at my heels right until the very end." O'Connor produced season's bests in the high jump and javelin on her way to victory Given that impressive 2025 she had, the pressure was on O'Connor to at least win a medal in Glasgow and it only ramped up after Katerina Johnson-Thompson, who had won gold ahead of her in 2022, pulled out.