MARK English survived a real fright as Finn Valley AC ace booked a place in the men’s 800m semi-finals at the European Indoor Championships.
English finished his heat in 1:49.79, behind Poland’s Patryk Dobek (1:48.85) and former world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (1:49.08).
As he came around for the home straight in Arena Toruń, English took a stumble, but managed to get in ahead of Abedin Mujuzinovic.
Going out of lane six, English took the bend in third, but there was a heart-in-mouth moment when his left foot appeared to clip the track railing.
English, though, survived to go into tomorrow’s semi-final.
“I just lost my balance a little bit, but job done for today,” English said.
“I just wanted to make sure i was in the right place. I ran out of a bit of steam towards the end, but I’m through to the next round.
“I’ve strung some good designs, my sped and endurance are there. It’s a matter of putting it all together.”
Two weeks ago, English – now working under Feidhlim Kelly at the Dublin Track Club – broke his own Irish indoor record when he ran a 1:46.10 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena.
The 27-year-old arrived in Poland as a three-time European medalist. He won silver at the 2015 European Indoors in Prague and was the 800m bronze medalist at the 2019 edition in Glasgow to go along with an outdoor bronze in 2014.
Mark English survives a stumble to advances to the semi-finals of the 800m at the European Indoor Championships. #torun2021 pic.twitter.com/3Y4oVar3BV
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) March 5, 2021
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