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Mark English (athlete)
Irish middle-distance runner (born 1993) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mark English (born 18 March 1993) is an Irish middle-distance runner. He is the Irish national record holder over 800 metres, both outdoors and indoors.[2]
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Early life
English's home town is Letterkenny in County Donegal. He attended secondary school at St Eunan's College.[3] He only made the switch to athletics during his Transition Year, having previously played Gaelic football for Letterkenny Gaels at under-age level.[4] While a member of Letterkenny Athletic Club in his teens, he tested himself against the Gaelic footballer Caolan Ward.[5]
English studied medicine at University College Dublin (UCD), where his classmates included Dublin's multiple All-Ireland winning Gaelic footballer Jack McCaffrey—considered that sport's quickest player. English has issued a challenge to McCaffrey to take him on over 100 metres.[6] After qualifying as a doctor in 2019, he initially intended to step aside from medical practice in order to focus on athletics full-time, but when the 2020 Olympics were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the opportunity to complete his 12-month medical internship.[7]
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Career
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At the 2014 European Athletics Championships, English won a bronze medal in the 800 metres event.[8][9] On 8 March at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, English won a silver medal.[10][11]
In 2014, English finished 2nd at the Adidas Grand Prix as part of the 2014 IAAF Diamond League.[12] English finished 4th at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup, representing Team Europe.[13]
In 2015, he finished 9th at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China.[14]
He represented Ireland at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[15] Later that year, English ran the 2nd quickest of all-time for 500m at the Great CityGames, finishing 2nd to 2016 Olympic 800m winner David Rudisha.[16]
On 3 March 2019, English won a bronze medal in the 800 metres at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.[17] Following this, the RTÉ analyst Jerry Kiernan (himself a former athlete) described English as historically the country's "greatest talent" in middle-distance running.[18] Several years earlier, Kiernan had claimed that English was better than Michael Murphy — the All-Ireland winning football team captain long held to be his county's greatest ever athlete. Kiernan justified this remark with the comment: "[Murphy] is playing against lads from Monaghan. Mark English is running against Kenyans".[19]
In August 2019, English won the 800m at the Birmingham 2019 Diamond League.[20]
In August 2022, he won a bronze medal in the 800m at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich.[21]
In March 2025, he won a bronze medal over 800 metres at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.[22][23] In May 2025, he ran a new 800 metres national record of 1:44.34 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Bydgoszcz.[24]
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Other work
English has been active in encouraging people to read more books.[25]
References
External links
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