Ireland’s Kate O’Connor had “mixed emotions” after day one of the women’s heptathlon at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

The 25-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist trailed leader Adrianna Sulek-Schubert by one point after the morning session that saw her record a personal best in the 100m hurdles and equal her PB in the high jump, but dropped to third after the evening events.

A 10th-place finish saw O’Connor drop back, but a third PB of the day in the 200m saw her narrow the gap to 42 points on Poland’s Sulek-Schubert on 3968 points with Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands now in second, 24 points behind the leader.

The heptathlon continues on Saturday morning with the long jump and javelin, while the event concludes in the evening with the 800m.

“This is really stiff competition and I let myself down again in the shot put, so I had to put my head down and work really hard out there [in the 200m],” Newry-born O’Connor told BBC Sport after the 200m.

“I’m really happy with that time and put myself somewhat back on track, but it’s a little bit mixed emotions for me as I have been putting in a lot of hard work and maybe I haven’t been able to fully show that.

“I’m in a pretty strong position for the close of day one, so I’ll have to come back tomorrow and see what I can do.”

O’Connor finished fourth in heat two of the 100m hurdles with a PB of 13:30 to come in 11th overall, the race won by Lithuania’s Beatrice Juskeviciute with a season best 13:09, ahead of Italy’s Sveva Gerevini and Weissenberg.

In the high jump, O’Connor equalled her personal best of 1.86m which was matched by Sulek-Schubert.

Returning on Friday evening, the Dundalk St Gerard’s AC athlete fouled on her second shot put attempt before throwing 13.96m, but responded well in the 200m with a 23.79 PB to finish third in heat two, edging out Sulek-Schubert on the line.

“After Glasgow, I think I lost a bit of confidence in myself [in the shot put] which is silly because I know I’m a 14-metre thrower and know I can throw 15 metres, but I’m not really trusting my positions,” O’Connor reflected.

“It’s something we’ll have to reevaluate because a lot of the girls have pushed on, so I need to figure out how I can do that too.

“Parking something and moving on is the name of the game. I’ve had my fair share of up and down moments, just like the other girls.

“It’s very hard to put seven perfect performances together. I’ve done three pretty perfect ones and one pretty bad one, so I hopefully tomorrow I will come back and do three great ones.”

Andrew Coscoran secured his place in the final of the men’s 1500m on Saturday evening, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 3:41.86, while a disappointed Cathal Doyle lodged an appeal after falling in his heat, yet finished the race.

Both Ireland’s men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams missed out on a place in their respective finals with the men just one second off the national record.