Mark English lowers Irish indoor 800m record again in Ostrava

Mark English has lowered his Irish indoor 800m record again.

At the Czech Indoor Gala, a World Indoor Gold meet in Ostrava, Finn Valley AC athlete English clocked 1:44.23.

English broke new ground when clocking 1:44.65 in Luxembourg last month.

In Czechia, English finished third in an excellent field, with Eliott Crestan from Belgium winning at Atletická Hala in a new meet record of 1:43.83.

Maciej Wdyerka finished in a new Polish national record of 1:44.07 for second ahead of English, who was followed by Samuel Chapple, in a new PB of 1:44.75, and Marino Bloudek, who set a new Croatia national recored of 1:45.27.

In his most recent outing, English was third in a meeting in Lyon when going 1:46.63 having won in Luxembourg in a time that lowered his previous indoor best, 1:45.15 from the 2025 Millrose Games in New York.

Since the turn of the calendar year, English has also set a new Irish indoor 600m record, the Letterkenny native going 1:15.80 at Track and Field Live in Dublin, wiping out his own 1:16.64 from 2024.

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Last summer, English lowered the Irish 800m outdoor record three times, going down to 1:43.37 before Cian McPhillips recorded a1:42.15 on his way to finishing fourth at the World Championships in Tokyo.

English returned to action with a period of altitude training pre-Christmas before coming back to win the Finn Valley AC 5k on St Stephen’s Day.