MARK ENGLISH IS aiming to break 60 seconds over 500 metres in Sweden tomorrow night.
English lines up in the 500m race at the Globen Galan in Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe.
He and Abdelalelah Haroun from Qatar are hoping to break 60 seconds for 500m in the race – meaning the Letterkenny man is lining up a tilt at a world record for the distance.
The 60.09 set by Brycen Spratling last year is the record they are aiming for in a rarely-run distance that has been the subject of controversy over the years.
Before Spratling’s effort last year, the official world record for the indoor 500m was Ken Lowery’s 60.17 on January 16, 1987 in Indianapolis.
However, it was a record that was subject to a big talking point.
Roddie Haley ran 59.82 in Oklahoma in March 1986, but his time was considered later by officials to have been void because the track had no rail or curb on the inside lane
A year later, Haley ran a 59.90 at the NCAA Championships, but that too was wiped from the record books because the staggers in the heats were found not to have been measured properly.
“No-one has officially broken 60 seconds for that distance, so I’ll give it a go,” English told Donegal Sport Hub.
English finished second in his season-opener in Düsseldorf, where he came home in 1:47.28 in the B 800m race behind Musaeb Balla from Qatar.
‘A good rust buster’ was how English described that event and the UCD AC athlete will also compete in an 800m race in Glasgow on Saturday.
He said: “My plan now is to keep a higher tempo over the second and third laps in Glasgow.
“I’m very pleased with where I’m at. I’ve got no illness, injury or set back. I haven’t missed training since October. Hopefully I’ll see the fruits of that come the summer and I’ll be able to tolerate the rounds much better.”
English doesn’t have his season totally mapped out although he is certain to compete in a Diamond League meet in New York and the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam before he flies to Rio for the Olympic Games.
In Stockholm, English’s race also includes Haroun and Mohammad Abbas from Qatar; Swedish pair Adam Danielsson and Felix Frnacois Sweden; Calvin Smith and Erik Sowinski from United States of America and Onkabetse Nkobolo from Botswana.
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