MARK ENGLISH BOWED OUT of the Olympic Games last night, but left no regrets on the blue track at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange.
English came fifth in his semi-final in the early hours of this morning, meaning there was no place for the Letterkenny man in tomorrow’s 800m final.
[adrotate group=”18″]English finished in 1:45.93 after a strong finish that saw him pass a couple of opponents in the home straight.
Reigning Olympic champion and current world champion David Rudisha won the semi-final, the third of the three semis, in 1:43.88 while American Clayton Murphy was a surprise qualifier for the final, finishing in second.
[adrotate group=”81″]“I ran exactly the way I wanted, felt good, but the legs just turned to sludge in that last 200m,’ English said.
“Walking off the track there I think it was acceptance, more than disappointment, that this is where it’s at. I gave it everything, have absolutely no regrets. You saw Kszczot didn’t qualify. But it’s the Olympic Games. You expect that.”
Adam Kszczot is a two-time European champion from Poland and his missing out on a place at the start line for the final outlines the competitive nature of this race, now regarded as one of the most ferocious there is.
[adrotate group=”70″]English said: “I was nervous. You can’t not be nervous when you’re in a field of runners like that. I tried to stay relaxed.
“Having Rudisha there probably made it less difficult, because everyone knew how he was going to run. And that’s what he hit, about 51 seconds for the first lap.
“I didn’t want to have any regrets. I gave it everything, ran as fast as I could over the first lap, to put myself in contention, and unfortunately that just wasn’t there on the last lap.
“I’m still hopeful I can learn from that and move on for next year, and beyond.”
[adrotate group=”38″]In March, English, who is a medical student at UCD, sustained a stress fracture of his fourth metatarsal, an injury that put him out of training for three months.
After making his exit, the 23-year-old admitted that his eleven weeks out of action hit his endurance in last night’s race.
He said: “It probably did, missing a good bit of endurance work, aerobic capacity, that probably told over the two rounds.
[adrotate group=”37″]“I’ve got the speed, just the endurance needed to be at a higher end. It’s something to work on over the winter, hopefully come back and give those guys a good fight next year. I was three months out of running completely, and that does tell when you’re trying to put two races together, back-to-back.”
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