English produces storming kick to advance in Barcelona

Mark English continued his impressive rise by winning his 800m heat at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Barcelona yesterday.

English was awarded victory in his heat having finished second, due to original winner Fiker Bekele of Ethiopia breaking out of his lane too early.

The Letterkenny AC athlete was bumped on the back straight during the final lap, and found himself towards the back, but a major surge of pace gave him the kick to join Bekele and Germany’s Dennis Krüger in the closing straight.

With Bekele disqualified, English’s time of 1:51.74 proved the winning mark.

Sarah Lavin was also impressive in qualifying for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m hurdles.

The Emerald AC athlete from Limerick finished third in her first-round heat in a time of 13.90 seconds, behind Australian Michelle Henneke and Dou Wang of China. Her sprint hurdle semi is at 5:35pm Irish time this evening, followed by English’s appearance at 7:15pm.

But a second Donegal athlete was unable to match that standard as Karl Griffin of Tir Chonaill AC came home seventh in his 800m quarter-final in 1:51.98. Neither James McCabe nor Dempsey McGuigan could make it into the men’s hammer final.