Mark English takes another big chunk off his Irish 800m indoor record

Donegal native English looks primed to contend at the World Indoors in March

Mark English lowered his 800m indoor record to 1:44.23. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Mark English took another big step forward by smashing his Irish indoor 800m record at the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava on Tuesday evening, the Donegal athlete finishing third in the world-class field in 1:44.23.

Victory went to Belgium’s Eliott Crestan in a meeting record of 1:43.83, with Poland’s Maciej Wyderka second in a national record of 1:44.07. English carved 0.42 off his previous Irish record, which he set in Luxembourg last month.

English will turn 33 next month and while the five-time European medallist has yet to reach a global final, he looks primed to contend for one at the World Indoors in Torun, Poland (20-22 March). English has never started a year quite like this, having now taken close to a second off the Irish indoor record of 1:45.15 that he ran in New York last February.

There was no such joy, however, for Sarah Lavin, who came up short of a spot in the 60m hurdles final after finishing fifth in her heat in 8.15. The Limerick athlete made a promising start to 2026 last week when clocking 7.98 in Paris. She will return to action in Madrid on Friday night. Elsewhere, Olympians Jack Raftery and Sophie Becker will be in action over 400m at the IFAM Louvain-La-Neuve Indoor meeting in Belgium on Wednesday evening.

Emma Moore was in action in the women’s 800m and finished sixth in 2:02.19, a decent debut for the 21-year-old at the gold level of the World Athletics Indoor Tour. Moore recently broke the Irish U-23 indoor record with 2:01.21 in Abbotstown. Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew took victory in Ostrava in 1:59.98.