Season best time for English but fails to make final

Brian Fay was given a baptism of fire at his first global championship, the Dubliner unable to go with the surge in pace with two laps to run and finishing 16th in 13:42.86. 

SEASON BEST: Mark English ran a season best time of 1:45.14 finishing seventh in his heat. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

It wasn’t what he wanted, but after the season he had, it might have been just what Mark English needed. The Donegal athlete fell short of reaching the world 800m final in Budapest tonight, finishing seventh in his semi-final in 1:45.14.

While that placed him 19th overall, well down on his 10th-place finish in Oregon last year, this was a major step forward on the rest of his year, which had been blighted by injuries.