British athlete Mark English emerges victorious in the 800m race at the World Athletics Continental Tour competition held in Beijing.
Mark English, a 32-year-old athlete from Donegal, has continued his impressive form with a win at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Beijing. English clocked a time of 1:44.67 to take the 800m event, setting a new meeting record and marking the eighth time he has run the distance under 1:45 this season.
The victory comes as a confidence-boosting performance for English, who fell short of qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo due to a serious knee infection picked up last December. Despite missing out on the chance to compete in Japan, English has still managed to break his own Irish 800m record three times this season, taking it from 1:44.53 to 1:43.37.
In the race, English overtook Kenya's Wycliffe Kinyanal and Belgium's Peter Sisk in the last 50m, with Pablo Sanchez-Valladares finishing second and Kinyanal in third. English's win places him second only to Cian McPhillips on the Irish all-time list, with McPhillips running 1:44.19 in July.
Meanwhile, in New York, Nick Griggs, a 20-year-old athlete from Tyrone, achieved a fourth-place finish at the Fifth Avenue Mile. Griggs clocked 3:49, just off the pace of Yared Nuguse, the Olympic 1,500m bronze medallist from the US, who won the race with a time of 3:48. Parker Woulfe and Drew Hunter from the US finished second and third, both also clocking 3:49.
Unfortunately, Griggs fell short of qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo due to his knee injury. However, he did manage to run Irish under-23 records in the mile and 5,000m this season.
Elsewhere, Mark English won his 10th Irish outdoor title in athletics last month, taking the 800m event in a closely-fought race against Cian McPhillips. This will be English's seventh successive World Championships, as he looks to continue his impressive career on the international stage.
This season, 15 men have broken the 1:43 barrier in the 800m, with Kenya's Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi leading the way at 1:41.44. As the World Athletics Championships begin in Tokyo on Saturday, English will be hoping to continue his impressive form and challenge for medals at the highest level.
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