Another stellar early-season run by Mark English saw him smash his own Irish indoor 800m record, clocking 1:44.65 for victory at the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting on Sunday.
The Donegal athlete had broken his own Irish indoor 600m during the week and built on that performance to eclipse his previous mark of 1:45.15 set at the Millrose Games in New York last year.
English sat back early in the race, before storming in front on the last turn, his 1:44.65 equalling the meeting record and well inside the 1:45.90 qualifying standard for March’s World Indoors in Poland.
His performance also moves him to joint-13th on the all-time world 800m indoor list, indicating the 32-year-old’s best years are far from over.
English broke his Irish 800m record three times last summer, taking it down 1:43.37 before Cian McPhillips smashed through the 1:43 barrier when running 1:42.15 to finish fourth in the World Championship final.
Sunday’s performance also follows English’s 600m national indoor record set just four days ago, where he clocked 1:15.80 at the Track and Field Live Meet at the National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown.
In the women’s 800m, rising star Emma Moore also delivered another outstanding performance, taking second in a personal best of 2:02.34, setting a new national Under-23 indoor record.
Moore’s time improves on her previous best of 2:02.39 from December and brings her another step closer to the Athletics Ireland World Indoors B standard of 2:02.20.
And Bori Akinola was among the highlights at the AAI Games on Saturday, when the UCD sprinter opening his season with victory over 60m in 6.68.