Mark English and Cian McPhillips make contrasting starts at European Championships in Birmingham
Ireland’s Mark English during the Men’s 800m Round 1 heat. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Mark English and Cian McPhillips faced contrasting fortunes on the first morning of the European Championships in Birmingham today, with English coasting to victory in his 800m heat in 1:46.96 but McPhillips crashing out after finishing seventh in his heat in 1:46.84.
McPhillips’ coach, Joe Ryan, confirmed to the Irish Examiner that the Longford native had contracted a virus just under a week ago and it was a race against time to recover. “While he is on the pathway to recovery, it was just too soon for him to perform at his best,” said Ryan.
McPhillips had clocked a season’s best of 1:43.97 in London last month before looking supreme when winning the national title in Santry, but he looked a shadow of his former self in today’s heat. He ran prominently through the first lap but was shifted back through the pack with 250 metres to run and was unable to summon his usual finish.
English, meanwhile, couldn’t have looked better as he sauntered to victory, igniting hopes of claiming his first major championship gold medal.
The Donegal native needed a top-three finish to advance automatically to Wednesday’s semi-finals and he was foot perfect throughout the race, sitting in third as they passed 200m and nestled in the middle of the pack in fourth as they passed 400m in a pedestrian 53.64.
The pace started to crank up on the back straight and English soon moved into second before taking command in the final 100m and easing to victory. “I'm feeling good,” said English.
“Like obviously I’ve the fastest time but it's not a matter of that being a given to get anywhere. Everyone starts at zero, so I'll just look to go to the semifinal and execute my race plan again, and hopefully it works out.”
English was the first of 12 Irish athletes competing across the day at the Alexander Stadium. He’s targeting his sixth European medal, having won two outdoors and three indoors across his decorated career, and he comes into the event ranked first, having clocked a lifetime best of 1:42.97 in London last month.
“I do feel as good as I've ever felt, but I'd say a lot of people feel that way,” he said. “Times, they don't mean everything coming into the championships. So I'll be excited to execute a new race plan again for the semi-final, and hopefully it works.”
Elsewhere, Ciara Neville and Lauren Roy faced contrasting fortunes in the women’s 100m heats this morning, with Neville advancing to this evening’s semi-finals after clocking 11.29 (3.2m/s) to finish fifth in her heat, while Roy came home sixth in her heat in 11.32 (1.8m/s) and was eliminated.
With the top-12 times across the three heats advancing to this evening’s semi-finals, and no automatic qualifier positions, Roy has good reason to feel hard done by due to the criteria, given the difference in tailwinds between races on a blustery day in Birmingham.
12.03pm: Jack Raftery, men’s 400m heats
12.40pm: Eric Favors, men’s shot put qualification
7.10pm: Nicola Tuthill, women's hammer qualification
7.42pm: Sarah Lavin, women’s 100m hurdles heats
8.10pm: Ciara Neville, women’s 100m semi-finals
8.33pm: *Eric Favors, men’s shot put final
8.40pm: Darragh McElhinney, Nick Griggs, Brian Fay, men’s 5000m final
9.13pm: Abbie Sheridan, women's 3000m steeplechase heats
9.50pm: *Ciara Neville, women’s 100m final
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