{"id":633254,"date":"2026-08-12T13:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633254\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T13:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:51:14","slug":"mark-english-breaks-48-year-old-european-championship-record-to-storm-into-800m-final-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633254\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark English breaks 48-year-old European Championship record to storm into 800m final \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A superbly timed run by Mark English<\/a> has secured his place in another 800 metres final at the European Championship<\/a> as the Donegal athlete nailed victory in his semi-final in a championship record of 1:43.49, a time which had stood since 1978.<\/p>\n

Lining up in the second of two semi-finals, English needed to finish inside the top three, with the two fastest times also progressing to the final. Buoyed by the notable Irish support inside the Alexander Stadium, English sat in third place at the bell, passed in a snappy 51.36.<\/p>\n

Despite losing some ground around the top bend, English never panicked, and once the space opened up down the homestretch there was no stopping him. Britain\u2019s Ben Pattison was second in 1:43.72.<\/p>\n

The previous championship record had stood to Olaf Beyer from East Germany, his time of 1:43.84 set in 1978.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot left in the last 100m, so that always bodes well,\u201d said English. \u201cIt\u2019s just a semi-final today, but I\u2019m excited for the final. And hopefully, I can put on a show again for the great Irish crowd that was out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I felt brilliant, so hopefully it stays until tomorrow, and we\u2019ll give it a good shot. I just have to trust myself, my own abilities, and I\u2019ve practised a couple of things in training, so I know what I\u2019m capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

That confidence was underlined when English kept his cool around the top bend: \u201cWell, I knew three people got through, and I knew it would probably be top five that will get through anyway because it was a quick race.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was just about not panicking, I knew something would open up, and I\u2019d get out. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m racing Community Games here, like it\u2019s Europeans, they\u2019re all good. So it\u2019ll be it\u2019ll be a tight competition, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first semi-final was equally lively, won by Britain\u2019s Max Burgin in 1:44.80, and he\u2019ll certainly be another title challenger come Thursday\u2019s final (9.28pm). Burgin made an explosive move with 200m remaining, cruising to victory from there, with French medal hope Gabriel Tual run out of the qualifying spots, finishing sixth in 1:45.88.<\/p>\n

At 33, English has been running better than ever, his 1:42.97 the fastest European time this season. He will now look to continue his excellent medal streak at this level. From the five European finals he\u2019s contested, he\u2019s won five medals \u2013 two bronze outdoors (2014 and 2022), and three indoors (two bronze, in 2019 and 2025, and one silver 2015).<\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Sophie Becker in action during the heats of the 400m at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Earlier in the session, a season\u2019s best over 400 metres was just enough to earn Sophie Becker<\/a> a place in the semi-finals, the Dublin athlete running a neatly balanced race to nail third place in Wednesday morning\u2019s qualifying heats.<\/p>\n

After a troubled start to the season with illness and injury, Becker has come back into form at the right time, her 52.28 seconds eclipsing her season best of 52.36, and enough to see her through into Thursday\u2019s semi-finals (12.45pm).<\/p>\n

Across the three opening round heats, the top 13 fastest times all progressed, with Becker\u2019s heat won by Eveline Saalberg from the Netherlands in 51.65. All six athletes in the last heat ran faster, but Becker ended up ranked 13th from across the three heats, thus getting another run.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old was Ireland\u2019s sole representative in the 400m, after the withdrawal through injury of Rachal McCann and then Sharlene Mawdsley. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland’sIreland\u2019s Lauren Roy in action during the heats of the 200m. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Lauren Roy also earned her place in the semi-finals of the 200m later this evening, the Ballymena athlete finishing fourth in her heat in 23.20 seconds.<\/p>\n

Running in lane nine, Roy started well and held her form down the homestretch, with Bogl\u00e1rka Tak\u00e1cs from Hungary taking the win in 22.84 seconds. Run into a slight -0.9m\/s headwind, Roy was outside her best of 22.83, but still put herself in a strong qualifying position.<\/p>\n

The top-12 across the three heats all progressed to the semi-finals, and Roy ended up ranked sixth best, and will now join Rhasidat Adeleke, who got a bye into the semi-finals later this evening (8.20pm), with the Dublin athlete ranked 12th best in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A superbly timed run by Mark English has secured his place in another 800 metres final at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,69966,19,17,10888,10884,132],"class_list":["post-633254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-eire","tag-european-athletics-championships","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mark-english","tag-sophie-becker","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117082869059630514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}