No reprieve for Mark English as Irish appeal rejected after semi-final

A last-ditch attempt by Irish athletics chiefs to have Mark English progressed to the 800m final of the World Athletics Indoor Championships has been rejected.

A Jury of Appeal has ruled that an incident involving English and Japanese athlete Tatsunami Clay, around 250m into Saturday afternoon’s semi-final, did not significantly affect the Finn Valley AC runner.

English placed fourth in the semi-final, the Donegal athlete finishing in 1:46.70 and bowing out with only the top two qualifying for Sunday’s final at Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena Toruń in Poland.

Upon reviewing the race, Irish officials lodged a protest with the track referee, arguing that the impeding of English by Clay impacted the Letterkenny native’s momentum.

The referee declined the protest saying that English was not seriously affected.

A subject appeal to the Jury of Appeal contested that English should be progressed, noting that the five-time European medal winner missed out on a final place by only 0.24 seconds and that the incident cost him advancement.

However, the panel rejected the Irish appeal. It is understood that the panel deemed the contact to be “incidental” and, therefore, did not significantly affect English.

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Clay placed second in 1:46.47 with the race won by Peter Bol from Australia, a sometime training partner of English with Justin Rinaldi’s Fast 8 Track Club.