English books place in Paris with new Irish 800m record

Mark English has set a new Irish record and qualified for his third Olympic Games after running the 800m in 1 minute 44.69 seconds in Turku, Finland.

The Donegal man took 0.02 of a second off his own previous national record to finish second in the Paavo Nurmi Games behind world indoor silver medallist Andreas Kramer, and was inside the automatic Olympic qualifying standard of 1:44.70.

The feat comes just 10 days after the 31-year-old failed to advance from the heats of the European Athletics Championships in Rome, an event he won bronze in in 2022.

At the same meeting there was an Irish 1-2 in the men’s 1500m as Cathal Doyle of Clonliffe Harriers pipped UCD’s Luke McCann to the line in a lifetime best of 3:34.09.

That is outside the 3:33.50 required for automatic qualification for Paris but should improve his standing within the ranking system for qualification.