‘Whether I finish first or eighth, I’ll be happy to get there’ says European gold medallist
It’s been a dream season so far, and now Mark English has the chance to crown it in style: by lining up against the world’s best on Sunday evening with significant prize money, and a global title, on the line.
The 33-year-old Donegal athlete produced one of the best performances of his career to power to victory in his 800m semi-final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest this evening, clocking 1:43.74.
That brought English home in front of Italy’s Francesco Pernici (1:43.80) and Canada’s Marco Arop (1:44.21), with Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati taking the final qualifier spot in fourth with 1:44.23.
In Arop and Sedjati, English defeated athletes who won medals at the 2024 Olympics and last year’s World Championships, the 33-year-old marking himself out as a big contender for the $150,000 (€130,000) top prize on offer in tomorrow’s final.
“I’m happy to make that final, it’s my first world final and it’s a big stepping stone for me, a progression,” he said. “Everything from here on is a bonus.”
English had skipped last weekend’s Diamond League final in Brussels to prepare for this event, spending the weeks since his gold medal run at the Europeans in Birmingham training at altitude in Sierra Nevada, Spain.
“I stayed back up there, got some training done and just came down this week — thankfully it all worked out. At my age you don’t want to be running every race, every week, so you have to just be careful.”
English has been training under Justin Rinaldi for the past two seasons and credited his influence, along with the impact of training as a full-time athlete in recent years — his medical career currently on hold.
“I’ve changed my training up, I used to be working as a doctor as well,” he said. “You’re doing night shifts so it’s not possible to train [properly] and the way the 800m has gone, you’re just training twice a day, every day. There’s insane depth in this so it’s difficult.”
In this evening’s semi-final, English slotted into third at 200m, which is where he was at 400m as he reached the bell in a controlled 52.47. He slipped to fourth with 200m to run but moved up to third on the final bend before unleashing his trademark flying finish to overhaul Pernici and Arop in the final 100m.
The favourite for the final is likely Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who finished fourth in his semi-final, which was won by USA’s Brandon Miller in 1:43.86.
What is English’s ambition?
“Whether I finish first or eighth, I’ll be happy to get there,” he said. “It’s all bonus territory for me. Since 2012 I’ve been chasing a world final, I was in the world junior final then in Barcelona, so to finally be back in the top eight in the world is nice.”