After her trip to Miami competing, we caught up with sprinter, Debbie O’Connell to talk about her recent results and next steps.
Debbie boasts an impressive CV in the athletics field, but also competes professionally in CrossFit, and spoke to us the day after she landed back on home soil.
She ranked #1 in the UK T46 category in 2024 for the 60m, 100m, 200m, & 400m sprints! Add to this the #1 for the 60m (i) in 2025 thus far, with a 8.93s win in the ‘England Athletics Senior/U20 Combined Event Championships, Senior Para Championships & Indoor Walk Championships’ back in January. This, narrowly missing her own PB by one-one hundredth of a second.
Debbie said, “This was my first indoor Champs, I don’t usually do the indoors or the 60m as a 400m sprinter, but after hitting Paralympic Qualifying times in the 200m & 400m last season I’m looking to focus on getting the 100m qualifying time this year (13.6s), My PB last year was 13.9s, so we are already very close and I believe I’ll have it ready for the Europeans in 2026.”
She moved to her current coach, Emma Burgon-Kisby, in 2022 and had this to say:
“Emma believes the 60m will help me improve my speed and acceleration. We still have a few World Grand Prix events and outdoor Champs to attend, but my primary focus is to maintain/improve my sprinting speed focusing on selection for the Europeans being held in Birmingham 2026.”
With Debbie currently sat just outside the UK top 10 2025 for the V35W 60m, as well as finishing 2024 inside the UK top 20 (V35W) over 400m, and bags of experience on the global stage from various WPA Grand Prix races & Invictus Games, 2025 really is shaping up to be a big year for her in the sport.
“I’ll need to run qualifying times at any World Para-Athletics meet over this year and into early ’26. I’m not sure what the cut-off is yet. Unfortunately, in Para-Athletics, having a qualifying time isn’t enough because of team size and funding, so there will then be a selection panel sometime in 2026.”
Let’s cheer her on for the season and wish her well for selection to more major events, as previously mentioned, having hit not one, but TWO Paralympic qualifying times last year!
#LWAC