Season's best and seventh place for English in 800m World Championships semi-final

Mark English ran a season’s best to finish up in seventh in his 800m semi-final at the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary.

The Finn Valley AC member came home in a time of 1:45.14, with Emmanuel Wanyonyi from Kenya first home in 1:43.84, Adrián Ben from Spain second in 1:43.92 and Bryce Hoppel third with 1:44.04. France’s Yanis Meziane’s 1:44.30 was enough to seal a place in the final as one of the fastest qualifiers. 

English, in Tuesday’s heat, clocked what was then a season’s best time of 1:45.71 to finish fourth despite being bumped by Jamaican athlete Navasky Anderson during the first lap.

In the semi-final English started strongly from lane two to avoid such complications and was right in the mix in fifth at the bell. However, the pace intensified in the final 400m and the Letterkenny native, who was forced to miss the National Senior Championships last month through injury, certainly put everything into it but had to be content with his best time of 2023.