Mark English hits significant season’s best in Oslo

Mark English clocked the fourth fastest 800m of his career in Oslo on Thursday evening.

The Finn Valley AC man finished fourth in a season’s best 800m at the Bislett Games, a Diamond League meeting in Norway.

At the Bislett Stadium, English finished in 1:44.95 – just 0.24 of a second off his Irish 800m record, clocked in Spain in June, 2021.

English, racing out of lane 4, was only 0.28 of a second off the winner, Tobias Gronstad from Norway, who crossed the line in 1:44.67.

Dutch duo Ryan Clarke and Tony van Diepen were second and third, going 1:44.83 and 1:44.85 respectively.

This represented English's fastest 800m since recording a 1:44.76 run in the heats at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

English got in ahead of Great Britain’s Guy Learmonth for fourth – a significant run as he prepares for the European Athletics Championships in Rome.

English is a four-time European medallist and the Letterkenny native also has the Olympic Games in Paris on his radar for late summer.

English recently won the 800m at the IX Memorial José Antonio Cansino meeting in Castellón in 1:45.85.

That improved on the 1:46.47 he clocked at the Yangtze Delta Athletics Diamond Gala in the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China. English had opened his outdoor season, also in China, when going 1:47.14.