Kate O’Connor is hoping her European bronze can catapult her onto the world stage. The Co.Down pentathlete broke the Irish record with a points tally of 4781 on Sunday to get onto the podium at the European indoor championships. Yet rather than rest on her laurels, she has immediately set her sights on the world indoor champs in China on March 21. And beyond that there is now a deep-lying knowledge that she can compete at world level, as she achieved bronze despite mixing her studies with athletics. If she now gets the requisite funding, she would be able to go full-time, and potentially, become a world medal contender within 12 months. Certainly she thinks she can get there as Sunday showed she had nerve as she needed a personal best in the final event - the 800m - to jump onto the podium. And she did just that, running a personal best of 2:11.42 in the 800m. At last year's Olympic Games, she placed 14th in the heptathlon and would have finished higher only for a lack of experience. Now she has the confidence to go to the next level. O’Connor told RTE: “The experience of being in the Olympics last year made me realise the athlete that I wanted to be. "My team and I really put our heads down over the last couple of months and decided we were going to be up there with those top girls. "I've actually surprised myself how quickly I've managed to get up there and I suppose now it's about building on that and trying to maybe become one of the best in the world. "It’s amazing. I suppose I've always looked up to those kind of girls, and I've always wanted to get a medal like this. "To have a medal in my closet at 24, who knows how many I'll get?" And yet in spite of this new found belief, O’Connor has yet to fully appreciate the scale of her achievement last weekend. She said: "It definitely hasn't sunk in yet. "I think it'll take a couple of days for it to fully sink in what I have actually just done. "I'm just trying to lap up absolutely everything and enjoy the moment as much as I can. "I knew I was in good shape. I had competed in Tallinn a couple of months prior, and I had done the exact same of putting out quite a few PBs. But I knew that there was a bigger score in me. And I suppose during the competition, it kind of came to light that I would need something really, really special to medal. "After the long jump, I was a little bit disappointed, because I was thinking, 'oh my goodness, I've put out four world-class performances right now, and I'm still trailing'. "I just really wanted to do something in that 800 metres that I'd be proud of, whether I finished third or fourth. "But thankfully, it went my way." The Irish Mirror has a rugby WhatsApp group where you can get breaking new and top stories on Ireland's Six Nations campaign straight to your phone. Click here to join. You can leave our group at any time if you don't like it.