Mark English smashes 48-year-old championship record to reach Euro 800m final

English confirmed in most impressive fashion that he is the gold medal favourite for Thursday’s 800m European final

Mark English ran 1:43.49 to reach Thursday night's European 800m final. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

A championship record. Successfully bettering a mark that had stood for 48 years - and in a morning semi-final.

This was Mark English confirming in most impressive fashion that he is the gold medal favourite for Thursday’s 800m European final.

The 33-year-old European leader confidently and comfortably tucked in on the rail behind Italy’s Francesco Pernici and Yanis Meziane of France at 200m and maintained that position as the field went through halfway in 51.36, a first 400m that was almost a full second quicker than the opening semi-final.

English was content to keep an inside position even as athletes began to surge on the outside with 200m remaining. The self-belief is such that there wasn’t a scintilla of panic. The self-belief comes from a 2026 season where he has dipped under 1:43 for the first time in his career.

Mark English turns on the style as he cruises to victory in the 800m semi-final, setting a new championship record of 1:43.49. It's a performance that further raises his expectations ahead of the final. pic.twitter.com/023LPNu9vM

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 12, 2026

Indicating out right to find a small gap on the home straight, the Donegal man’s turn of speed took him away from everyone else for a semi-final win and a 1:43.49 time that erased Olaf Beyer’s 1:43.84 championship record from 1978.

Tomorrow’s 9.28pm final presents him with the opportunity to win a third European outdoor medal, after bronze in 2014 and ‘22. Add in his three European Indoor medals - one silver and two bronze - and he is chasing a record sixth European track medal where Irish athletes are concerned.

He has every colour bar the main one. Outstanding threats to preventing his completion of the full set will be the British pair of Max Burgin and Ben Pattison. The former was a convincing winner of the first semi-final, in 1:44.73, while Pattison followed directly behind English in the second.