Mark English set to open outdoor season in Los Angeles

European Indoor 800m bronze medallist Mark English opens his outdoor season this weekend in Los Angeles.

The Finn Valley AC athlete is due to race at the Track Fest meet at Jack Kemp Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

English has been on a training camp in Flagstaff in recent weeks. He is now coached by Justin Rinaldi, the Australian 800m coach, and has been linked up with the Fast8Track Club since towards the end of 2024.

In March, English won the 800m bronze - the fifth European medal of his career - at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

English clocked 1:45.46 and was behind only Samuel Chapple and Eliott Crestan at the Omnisport before illness ruled him out of the subsequent Worlds Indoors in Nanjing, China.

Earlier in the year, the Letterkenny native set a new Irish indoor 800m record of 1:45.15 while running at the world famous Millrose Games in New York and he also holds the Irish outdoor record (1:44.53), which he will look to lower in the outdoor season.

Track Fest is a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level meet.

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Dutch athlete Tony van Diepen, the 2021 European Indoor silver medallist, and Tonatiu Lopez from Mexico, who won gold at the 2017 Summer Universiade, are among those also in the mix.

Craig Engels, Isaiah Harris and Brannon Kidder from USA, John Rivera from Puerto Rico, Morocco’s Moad Zahafi and Alex Amankwah of Ghana are all listed to run in the 800m this weekend.