Kate O’Connor’s heptathlon silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was one of the truly great Irish sporting achievements. To post 5 personal bests in her 7 events, some of them with a knee injury, speaks to a truly elite mental toughness.

©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Derval O’Rourke watched it all, was left by turns speechless and emotional over the course of Saturday morning, and joins us today to talk about the importance of solid structures around Kate, the new stratosphere she has been launched into, as well as Cian McPhilips’ tantalising run for fourth in the 800m final.

©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

We join Joe Callaghan, who made the border crossing from Canada to get to Bethpage Black, a blue collar course in New York, for a Ryder Cup that will have lots of bite and spite, on and off the course.

©INPHO/Matteo Ciambelli

And there’s lovely sports Dads, the spirit of Seve, and we imagine what VR headsets abusing polite European sportspeople might be like.

Click the player at the top of the page to play the show. Monday’s shows are free to all. To listen to our programming throughout the rest of the week, join the Second Captains World Service. There’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all good podcast apps, on Spotify or through our website. It’s independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Ken’s Football Show, The Politics Podcast, and lots of added extras. You’ll also be supporting the development of our longer-form work, such as our international series’  ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and Stakeknife.

CHECK OUT OUR UPCOMING LIVE SHOWS & GET TICKETS WHEREVER YOU ARE.

LIVE SHOW TICKETS

BECOME A SECOND CAPTAINS WORLD SERVICE MEMBER AND GET COMPLETE ACCESS TO ALL OUR SHOWS AND ARCHIVE.

JOIN US