Kate O’Connor said her late grandmother “would have been jumping for joy” as the Ireland athlete won gold in the heptathlon at the European Championships in Birmingham.

The Newry-born 25-year-old entered the final event, the 800m, with a 51-point lead on nearest challenger Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands.

O’Connor needed to finish within 3.4 seconds of Oosterwegel to seal overall victory and did just that, with the Dutchwoman winning the race in 2:10.87 as O’Connor – in third behind Sveva Gerevini of Italy – clocked 2:11.74.

It meant that O’Connor came top with 6,751 points – a national record – with Oosterwegel taking silver on 6,713 and Netherlands’ Sofie Dokter claiming bronze on 6,664.

This success builds on the gold O’Connor won at the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland in July and silver at last year’s World Championships.

“A couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have thought this would happen to me,” O’Connor told RTE Sport.

“It’s been a long two years. I know there’s been medals [won], but there is an increase in pressure with every competition, so each has been different to try and navigate that and this competition has been no different. It’s been difficult from start to finish and I didn’t have it easy for a second.

“This year has been really tough from outside – my granny dies earlier this year and I don’t think I give my dad enough credit, but it hit home for him and the way he turned up to training day-in and day-out…

“This is my dream, but it’s his dream too and I have to dedicate this medal to my granny because she was both of our biggest fans and would have been jumping for joy if she was here.”

O’Connor entered day two in third place after four events, 42 points behind overnight leader Adrianna Sulek-Schubert, after personal bests in the 100m hurdles (13.30secs) and 200m (23.79) on Friday. She also matched her best of 1.86m in the high jump and threw 13.96m in the shot put.

Her personal best form continued in the long jump on Saturday morning with a leap of 6.55m, and a throw of 50.16m in the javelin took her overall total to 5,812 points.

That was 51 ahead of Oosterwegel who had moved into second with Dokter third as Poland’s Sulek-Schubert dropped to seventh after a disappointing start to the day.

It all came down to the 800m on Saturday evening and O’Connor raced into an early lead before Oosterwegel took the initiative, but the Dundalk St Gerard’s AC athlete remained on her shoulder as Gerevini then mounted a charge.

While Oosterwegel passed the Italian to win the race, O’Connor was within a second which was enough to claim a second gold medal in a matter of weeks.

“That was the most nerve-racking 800 of my life,” O’Connor said.

“I had a job to do and I know I’ve had quite a few jobs to do over these last few days – some I’ve executed and some I haven’t.

“I was so nervous before that run, but when I hear cheers like that for me [from the Irish support] going around those two laps, there was no way I was going to let that gold medal slip through my fingers.

“I did want to win the race, but with 50 metres to go I knew I had enough in me to stay within the three seconds and I just wanted to leave here injury-free and with a gold medal around my neck.”

Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished last in the first 800m heat to be 21st overall.

The 33-year-old Olympic silver medallist came into the competition after competing just once – at a shot put event in Loughborough in May – since claiming bronze at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.

Johnson-Thompson, the world champion in 2019 and 2023, entered Saturday 324 points off the pace in 16th and continued to struggle.

“It is obviously far from my best,” Johnson-Thompson told BBC Sport.

“Not the competition I would have wanted, but in a way it is. I finished.

“As a heptathlete it is not easy to come into a competition not in shape. You can’t get knocked out in a heat and go home. It was important to me that I finished. I wanted to do it for them [coaching team and physiotherapist] as we worked so hard to be here.

“I have been coming here since English schools. I have been coming here a long time and I have been an athlete for a long time. It has been great to experience the stadium.”

Her GB team-mate Jade O’Dowda finished 13th with 6,191 points after a fifth-place finish in heat one of the 800m.

Andrew Coscoran secured a fourth medal for Ireland in Birmingham with bronze in the 1500m.

The Dubliner dropped to seventh at one stage in a thrilling race, but managed to find another kick to surge into third with a time of 3:36.24 for his first major outdoor medal, edging GB’s Jake Heyward into fourth.

Stefan Nillessen of the Netherlands took gold with Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom claiming silver.

“That’s a product of a lot of work over the years,” Coscoran told RTE Sport.

“A lot of strength work, a lot of speed work – it eventually paid off. I’ve been working so hard for this for so long.”