Mark English qualifies for 800m semi-finals at World Championships in Tokyo

Mark English has automatically qualified for the semi-finals of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The Finn Valley athlete finished third in his heat in a time of 1:45.13 to automatically qualify for the semi-finals.

English was running in Heat 5, featuring 2024 Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi from Kenya.

The Letterkenny man settled into fourth place after the start, but after a very fast first lap, fell back to sixth at the bell before moving up to third coming around the bend.

The 32-year-old moved past Peyton Craig into second, following in the Kenyan champion, but was pipped on the line by Italian Francesco Pernici.

English becomes the second Irishman to make the 800m semi-finals at the championships, with Cian McPhillips of UCD AC winning Heat 4 with a time of 1:44.91.

Both men will be involved in the semi-finals, which take place on Thursday, with the first semi-final scheduled for 1.45pm Irish time.

“I would have liked to get second for a better draw for the semis, but you’ve got to take what you get,” English said to David Gillick on RTÉ after the race.

“I wanted to be in position, and it was relatively quick through 400m.

“But it opened up nicely for me in the last lap. Wanyonyi is an Olympic champion and of really good calibre, but it was a good race.

“I (looked to the big screen) wanted to see if anyone was coming, and the Italian kid (Pernici) came out of nowhere, which you can't do anything about, but it is what it is, and I'll get ready for the semi-finals on Thursday.”

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Last month, he smashed his own Irish National Record in the 800m in Budapest with a time of 1:43.37 at the Gyulai István Memorial - a World Athletics Gold level meet.

That shaved over half a second off his previous record of 1:43.92, which he set in the Netherlands in June, becoming the first Irish athlete to run a sub-1:44 800m.