In the four months since last competing, Kate O’Connor says she’s been working hardest on her start and speed over the 100m hurdles. Which is promising, as that’s first up on Tuesday morning when she begins her latest quest for another heptathlon medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.O’Connor hasn’t competed since winning her fifth consecutive championship medal within 13 months, bringing home a pentathlon bronze from the World Indoors in Poland in March. The 25-year-old Dundalk star has now set herself the lofty target of winning two more medals within just over a fortnight.It’s O’Connor’s third time representing Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games and it will be a testing and tricky challenge, given her main priority remains the European Championships in Birmingham, where the heptathlon starts 16 days later. She’s also the clear favourite for gold in Glasgow among the 16-woman field, following the withdrawal last week of England’s two-time defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who is still targeting Birmingham.“We’ve done a lot of work on hurdles, a lot of work on my start and my speed,” O’Connor says of her recent month-long training camp in Monte Gordo in Portugal “So I would love to start off with a personal best there. Hopefully I’ll get on a roll and just enjoy the competition.“It’s different this year, I’m going [in] as one of the favourites to win. That’s a different pressure. And it’s also the closest I’ve done two heptathlons before. I did two pentathlons back-to-back last year (winning European Indoor bronze and then World Indoor silver within 12 days) and it’s exciting to try something new.“I’ve had a great run of training over the last while, so hopefully try to win this, then hopefully turn up at the European Champs and try to win that too. It’s a little nerve-racking, but I’m just trying to enjoy the ride.”O’Connor set five personal bests in the seven heptathlon events when winning silver at the World Championships in Tokyo last September. She clocked 13.44 in the 100m hurdles and improved her Irish record to 6,714 points.“All my events have come on this year,” she says. “Last year, I really wanted to run a sub-24 in the 200m (she ran 24.07 in Tokyo) and I would love to do that this year.Kate O’Connor completes a successful high jump during the women's heptathlon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho “And I think the high jump is one where I’d like to just replicate what I did last year. If I could jump 1.86m again, that would be really solid. But I’ve been jumping higher than I’ve ever been in training, clearing 1.80s. So the high jump is definitely moving in that direction, if I can execute on the day.“But honestly, it’s just about holding my nerve, keeping my body in check. If I’m healthy on the line, I know I’ll be a dangerous athlete. Training is certainly pointing in the direction that I will be able to do both. But you can never walk into any championships knowing how you’re going to do. I’m producing better results in training, but I can’t tell you right now how much I have improved, because I still need to go out and do it in competition.”O’Connor made her senior international debut at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, aged 17. Four years ago, she won silver behind Johnson-Thompson.O’Connor’s father Michael continues to oversee her coaching, along with her sprints and hurdles coach Tom Reynolds, and throwing coach Dave Sweeney. The javelin remains her strongest event. She is also clear of the knee injury which bothered her during the World Indoors in March, although her right Achilles tendon does sometimes need attention.“Because it’s my right leg, my lead leg in jumping and hurdling, it takes a lot of the stress,” says O’Connor. “I’ve also gotten a lot faster, a lot springier, so there’s a lot more going through me than before. “Sometimes it feels like my body is trying to keep up, but I’ve been so lucky, I haven’t had a serious injury since 2023. I’ll take the niggles that I can manage, they’re just annoying, but the team handles it very well. But it’s not causing me any bother at the moment, it’s happy, it’s not grumbling.”She would also like to improve her 800m best of 2:09.56, again set in Tokyo, adding: “The 800m is just about having the confidence to forget about everyone else, just run my own race, checking on my own times. And I’ve done a lot of work on that.“It can be stressful sometimes, people expecting me to turn up and be able to produce it. And so many people are coming to watch. But I really want to show off all the work I’ve been doing behind the scenes.”Glasgow will reunite her with England’s Jade O’Dowda, a sister of Ireland soccer international Callum, who won bronze four years ago and has a best of 6,391 points. O’Connor’s Northern Ireland teammate Anna McCauley is also making good progress this year, improving her best to 6,069 points in May.Kate O’Connor Commonwealth Games scheduleTuesday10.10am: 100m hurdles11.10am: High jump7pm: Shot put8.04pm: 200m.Wednesday10.05am: Long jump12.05pm: Javelin8.55pm: 800mLive coverage on TNT Sports and HBO