Donegal sensation Mark English smashes another Irish record on the track
Mark English claimed his third outdoor track triumph of the season and became the first Irishman to break 1:44 for 800m at the FBK Games in Hengelo.
English, 32, produced another scintillating finish to cross the line in first place ahead of France's Yanis Meziane and Australia's Peyton Craig after sitting off the early pace at the event in the Netherlands, thus franking his recent strong form.
The Donegal star clocked a new national record time of 1:43.92, bettering his previous best of 1:44.34 set 10 days ago in Bydgoszcz - both events were part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series. The Finn Valley athlete was also victorious in the Running Track Fest meet in LA last month.
English trained at altitude after winning his fifth and latest European medal - in the indoors in Apeldoorn in March - and that work is paying off.
'It felt great,' said English of his latest success. 'I just wanted to run that race like a semi-final and I managed to do that. I stayed off the pace early and when I got to 600 I felt really good.
'I could see them fading and when I'm in good shape, I can always understand what the commentators are saying and I could hear him say there would be some tired legs in the home straight, it was nice to hear that. I thought I could catch them with about 80 metres left.'
English is hoping this is only the start of a spectacular summer, with the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo to come in September.
Earlier in the evening Orla Comerford (Raheny Shamrock AC) won the Para Athletics Women's 100m in a season's best time of 11.96 seconds (-1.2m/s), which is just 0.06 seconds off the Paralympic bronze medallist's personal best.
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