{"id":71172,"date":"2025-09-18T08:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/71172\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:36:10","slug":"cian-mcphillips-and-mark-english-capable-of-making-800m-history-at-world-athletics-championships-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/71172\/","title":{"rendered":"Cian McPhillips and Mark English capable of making 800m history at World Athletics Championships \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s being billed as the night when the 40-year-old world record for the women\u2019s 400m might finally come under threat, only before that there\u2019s the chance for two Irish athletes to write some World Championships<\/a> history in the men\u2019s 800m.<\/p>\n

Cian McPhillips<\/a> and Mark English<\/a> have already set some firsts in getting through to Thursday\u2019s semi-finals (1.45pm Irish time). McPhillips became the first Irish heat winner in the event on Tuesday, before English also progressed after finishing third in his heat. It\u2019s the first time there\u2019s been two Irish representatives in the semi-final stage of the event.<\/p>\n

Now comes the tough part. No Irish man or woman has made an 800m final at the World Championships, and that\u2019s the daunting task facing both McPhillips and English in Tokyo. In the event where raw speed meets sheer endurance, there\u2019s little room for error, although both athletes look eminently capable.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve come to Tokyo at the opposite ends of their running careers. For the 32-year-old English, the five-time European 800m medallist between indoors and outdoors, it might well be his last chance to make the global outdoor final he\u2019s long pursued. The Donegal athlete has already improved his Irish record three times this season, taking it down to 1:43.37.<\/p>\n

For McPhillips, the 23-year-old from Longford competing in his first outdoor World Championships, the style of victory in his 800m heat leaves no doubt he too is in the form of his career so far. With only the top two in the three semi-finals progressing to Saturday\u2019s final, plus the two fastest non-qualifiers, qualification will once again be cut-throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty scary when you see your heat draw and you\u2019re in with 1:42, 1:43 guys, miles ahead of my season best,\u201d said McPhillips after winning his heat in 1:44.91. \u201c[The semi-final] will be the best quality race I\u2019ve ever been in by a million miles, but I\u2019ll just do what I did there, throw myself into the mix and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Mark English in the men’s 800m heats. Photograph: Hannah Peters\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

After finishing third in his heat, won by Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi from Kenya, English was originally drawn in the toughest semi-final, alongside Wanyonyi again, plus defending champion Marco Arop from Canada and Olympic bronze medallists Djamel Sedjati from Algeria.<\/p>\n

However, a redraw saw Wanyonyi replaced by the fellow Kenyan Nicholas Kebenei, who has a best of 1:43.54. It means English is ranked fourth fastest of the eight starters. His 1:43.37 may well need further revision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready for anyone in that stifling heat out there,\u201d English said of his semi-final prospects, this being his seventh successive World Championships. Up in the first semi-final, if he does finish in the top four, it will make for an anxious watch of the two other semi-finals.<\/p>\n

McPhillips goes in the second, with a 1:41-man for company in France\u2019s Gabriel Tual. But there\u2019s no disputing the Longford man\u2019s class of McPhillips. A European under-20 champion in 2021, that same year he smashed the national under-20 record for 1,500m, running 3:40.56 to erase a 45-year-old record.<\/p>\n

Injury and illness then slowed his progress from the junior to senior ranks, but the UCD athlete has bounced back this year, crediting his long-time coach Joe Ryan in Mullingar for keeping him on the right track.<\/p>\n

A repeat of the flawless tactics shown in winning his heat would also put him in the mix, with the lay-off required after McPhillips fell in the European Indoors back in March meaning he\u2019s only peaking now too.<\/p>\n

\"USA'sUSA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the women’s 400m semi-final. Photograph: Jewel Samad\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Then comes the women\u2019s 400m showdown (2.24pm Irish time). A year after Rhasidat Adeleke<\/a> finished fourth in the Olympic final in Paris, there\u2019s an entirely new interest this time around in Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the world record holder in the 400m hurdles.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin-Levrone is focusing on the 400m flat in Tokyo, and in Tuesday\u2019s semi-final ran 48.29 seconds to break the US record which had stood since 2006.<\/p>\n

With something clearly left in reserve, the question now is whether she can threaten the 47.60 world record set by Marita Koch of East Germany in 1985, even though no other woman has broken 48 seconds in the 40 years since.<\/p>\n

The Tokyo final line-up also includes 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain and Olympic champion from Paris, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic. <\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Irish in action (all times Irish)<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s 800 semi-finals \u2013 1:45pm:<\/b> Mark English; 1.53pm:<\/b> Cian McPhillips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s being billed as the night when the 40-year-old world record for the women\u2019s 400m might finally come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[47527,18,19,17,10888,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-71172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cian-mcphillips","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mark-english","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71172","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=71172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}