Mark English smashes own national indoor 600m record at Abbotstown

English last raced at the World Championships in Tokyo four months ago. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Mark English got the year off to a flying start by smashing his own Irish indoor 600m record at the Track and Field Live meeting in Abbotstown on Wednesday night, the Donegal athlete clocking 1:15.80.

That brought him home over five seconds clear of runner-up Kevin Woods (1:21.00) and took a huge chunk off his previous record of 1:16:64, which English ran in Boston in 2024. It was just shy of his Irish outdoor record of 1:15.71, which he ran in Amsterdam in 2015.

English last raced at the World Championships in Tokyo four months ago, producing one of the best runs of his career to finish third in the 800m semi-final, but his time wasn’t quick enough to advance.

Despite that, it was a stellar season for the 32-year-old, who set an Irish indoor 800m record of 1:45.15 and won European Indoor bronze before breaking his Irish record three times outdoors — the mark of 1:43.37 he ran in August later broken by Cian McPhillips, who ran 1:42.15 to finish fourth in the world 800m final.

McPhillips will likely have his eyes on English’s 600m record when he lines up for the same distance at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on 24 January, with the Longford athlete also set to compete at the Millrose Games in New York the following weekend.

Elsewhere, Sarah Leahy set an Irish record over 50m at the Meeting Indoor Iocarnese in Switzerland, clocking 6.41 to beat Paralympic medallist Orla Comerford, who trains alongside her under coach Daniel Kilgallon. 

Leahy’s mark broke the previous record of 6.44, set by Ailis McSweeney in 2005. Leahy and Comerford returned to the track for the 60m later in the evening, with Leahy winning in 7.44 and Comerford smashing her PB in second with 7.53.