A SUPERB SECOND lap saw Mark English reach the semi-finals of the men’s 800m at the Olympic Games.
English settled at the back of the field early on but, just when it was starting to look as if he’d left himself with too much to do, the afterburners kicked in over the final lap.
Coming around the bend English and Polish athlete Marcin Lewandowski overtook Australia’s Jeffrey Riseley and Qatar’a Abubaker Haydar Abdalla to secure qualification.
And Mark English is through pic.twitter.com/iIsZq83oVs
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) August 12, 2016
English’s time was 1 minute 46.40 seconds at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio.
The heat was won by Canadian Brandon McBride in 1:45.99 with Lewandowski finishing in 1:46.35.
[adrotate group=”81″]Those two and English have advanced to the semi-finals, with English surely taking great confidence from the way he finished this heat.
Lewandowski was the gold medal winner at the 2015 European Indoor Championships when English won a silver medal.
[adrotate group=”38″]In 2014, English won bronze at the European Championsips with Lewandowski finishing fifth in that final.
A stress fracture of his fourth metatarsal in March saw English miss three months of training but he returned to win the Irish 800m title in June and in July clocked 1:45.36 at a Diamond League meeting in London.
