EOIN O’Callaghan came, saw and conquered as he hit his target at the European U18 Athletics Championships in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.
The rising Bandon Athletic Club star set an U18 national record in the decathlon as he amassed over 7000 points for the first time ever – and this helped secure a top-ten finish for the highly-rated 17-year-old Bandon teen.
‘To finish the decathlon, it’s so hard to do. With the heat here, we’re not used to it,’ O’Callaghan said afterwards, ‘and I couldn’t have asked for a better score. I came out with the goal to get the national record and 7000 points – and that’s exactly what I did.’
O’Callaghan recorded SIX new personal bests across the two days of action to finish with a huge total of 7023 points, an U18 Irish record. On Saturday, he ran a 100m PB (11.74), threw a shot put PB (13.83) and had a long jump PB (6.66m) before running the 400m (50.23), as well as clearing 1.84m in the high jump; he was in 17th place after the first day.
On Sunday, O’Callaghan ran a new 110m hurdles PB (14.55), threw 39.36m in the discus, before reaching a new pole vault PB (3.90m) followed by a javelin PB (46.62m) and a strong 1500m (4:34.28) to round it all off and earn a ninth-place finish. To make his feat even more impressive, the Bandon teenager injured his knee in the pole vault, yet still set a new personal record.
🗣️ “I couldn’t have asked for much better of a score. I came out with a goal of getting the national record and 7000 points and that’s exactly what I did.”
Hear from Eoin O’Callaghan after a terrific performance in the Men’s Decathlon at the European U18 Championships 🙌🎤… pic.twitter.com/5XQWkArqef
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) July 21, 2024
‘I hurt my knee during the pole vault,’ he explained.
‘I failed my first two attempts at 3.80 and then got it at the third attempt. I decided I would go for 3.90 because I wanted a new PB; my previous was 3.87. I failed the first two without even leaving the ground. My coach and everyone was “okay, maybe you should leave it at that, save your knee for the javelin and the 1500 to come”. But I was like, “No, I got this,”. I got over with my final attempt and it was amazing.
O’Callaghan added: ‘I knew my whole year was leading up to this, it was all I was aiming for so the training was as hard as you can imagine. I came out and did exactly what I needed to do, and got six PBs.’
This is the latest sign that O’Callaghan is one to watch as he is currently the reigning national U18 decathlon and heptathlon champion, U17 national and schools’ senior high jump champion, as well as a long list of other accolades. He’s more definitely one to keep an eye on.
