Mark English hoping to feed off confidence of being a medal winner

Mark English is not shying away from the expectation that will rest squarely on his young shoulders when he leads a dozen-strong Irish challenge at next month’s European Indoor Athletics Championship. 

English franked a reputation as the front-runner for a new generation of Irish athletes last August when he claimed a bronze at the European outdoors in Zurich and the 21-year old speaks with a wisdom beyond his years when debating what that entails.

“You’re always going to have different expectations after getting a European medal. I try to see the positives in everything that happens. I’m looking at the confidence that medal has given me.”

Others will look to feed off that.

The team announced yesterday by Athletics Ireland boasts an average age of just 23, as many of the country’s leading lights have opted to focus on the outdoor campaign one year out from the Olympics in Brazil.

Some of those travelling to Prague, like Ciara Everard in the women’s 800m and maybe even Dara Kervick in the men’s 400m, will do so for the March 5-8 event with hopes of securing a place in the final, but English is the sole medal prospect.

The Donegal runner qualified for the Czech meet with a sixth-placed 1:47.17 time at the Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham last Saturday and followed it up with a race-winning turn at the GloHealth national championships in Athlone a day later.

His form has been good rather than great so far in this nascent season, but that follows the same arc he has observed in years past. The graph always improves and he described himself as “confident” approaching the Euros.

English seems to have found a harmony between his career as an international athlete and life as a third-year medical student in UCD.

Studies demand his time nine-to-five, the evenings are reserved for training. Feidhlim Kelly is his training partner, Nic Bideau puts his training sessions together and George Petrakos in UCD provides the S&C side of the operation.

Part of the attractions to working with Bideau and Petrakis are the open minds both bring to coaching and preparation and English is sticking to his own routine that refuses to countenance training runs of anything longer than 60 minutes. After all, he says, David Rudisha doesn’t go beyond 50.

Add all that up and this is an athlete who clearly believes he is better than the one that finished third in Zurich six months ago.

The differences go way beyond the fact that indoor involves four laps, but even that reality alone increases the importance of hugging the inside track and minimising the extra curvature of the bends further out. Position is key, splits redundant.

“In 800m running, you just have to be a student of the sport. I’ve gone to a few championships now and learnt the hard way, especially in the World Championships in Moscow (in 2013).

"I tried to apply tactics there that I’d learnt at junior level and they don’t work at senior level. It’s such minute scraps between the athletes’ abilities at this level, there’s no room for mistakes.”

Ireland team for European Indoor Athletics Championship:

400m: Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers)

800m: Ciara Everard (UCD AC), Mark English (UCD AC), Declan Murray (Clonliffe Harriers)

1,500m: Danny Mooney (Letterkenny AC), John Travers (Donore Harriers AC)

60m hurdles: Gerard O’Donnell (Carrick-on-Shannon)

3,000m: Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders)

Long jump: Adam McMullen (Crusaders AC)

Men’s 4x400m relay squad: Timmy Crowe (Clonliffe Harriers), Mark English (UCD AC), Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers), Paul Murphy (Ferrybank AC), Harry Purcell (Trim AC).