Irish Indoor 800m champion Mark English makes a swift return to action this evening when he lines up in the AIT International Grand Prix.
English will go under starter’s orders at Athlone IT after winning the Irish Indoor 800m crown at the weekend. English had been inactive since the World Championships in London last autumn, but saw off the field to regain Irish gold in Dublin.
The Letterkenny native and UCD AC athlete will be among several top-class athletes in Athlone this evening.
In the past this event has been blessed to have European, World & Olympic Champions, some of whom have broken meet, all-comers and continental records. The recently crowned IAAF World Athlete of the Year and World High Jump Champion Mutaz Essa Barshim will be back to compete at the fifth AIT International Grand Prix.
Basrshim ultimately stole the limelight as he broke the Asian indoor record with a jump of 2.41m.
Irish interest will be stirred as 2016 Olympian Thomas Barr is lined up to run the 400m with English to go in the 600m.
Sub 4 minute miles have become de rigueur in the men’s mile while four of the women’s 1500m field ran the World Indoor qualifying standard in 2016. In 2017, World 800m Silver medallist Melissa Bishop didn’t disappoint the fans as she won the 800m race in a time of 2:01.42.
As the fields for the 2018 event are currently being finalised we can guarantee another amazing night of indoor athletics with some of the sports biggest international and domestic names converging on Athlone.
AIT president, Prof Ciarán Ó Catháin, said: “We have a really top field of athletes lined up again for the AIT International Grand Prix in February. The fields will be filled with an even deeper level of talent than we have ever had before and that is saying quite something. We are very excited about the event as are many Athletics fans in Ireland. Ticket prices are very competitive again this year. There are not many events in the world where you will witness such top class sportspeople at such prices”.
