Brilliant Mark English breaks Irish 800m record and gains Olympic Standard

Mark English broke the long-standing Irish 800m record and made the Olympic standard with an outstanding run in Spain on Tuesday evening.

The Letterkenny native finished second in the men's 800m in a personal best of 1:44.71,to topple the long-standing Irish record of 1:44.82 over the distance, ran by David Matthews in 1995. English's previous best was 1:44.84.

English finished second this evening behind Yassine Hethat from Algeria, who ran 1:44.25, while Spain’s Saúl Ordóñez Gavela was third in a time of 1:44.80 at the Memorial Jose Antonio Cansino/Meeting at Castello.

The Olympic Standard is 1:45.20  for the distance.