Mark English produces 800m lifetime best to finish sixth in World Ultimate Championship final

Mark English of Ireland finishes sixth in the men's 800m final on day three of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Mark English produced an 800m lifetime best of 1:42.78 to finish sixth in the final of the World Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sunday evening, a race won by Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati in 1:41.91.

The top three was a replication of the trio who led the field home at the Olympics in 2024 and World Championships last year, just in a different order, with Canada’s Marco Arop taking second in 1:42.28 and Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi third in 1:42.44.

English’s previous best was the 1:42.97 he ran in London in July. With a vicious early pace, 200m passed. “I said yesterday I’d be happy if I finished first or eighth and to come away with a PB as well is a great bonus,” he said.

“The goal was to try to get the most out of my body as I knew it’d be a fast race. I’m happy with that. I ran a PB and you can never not be happy when you run a PB.”

Earlier in the evening, Rhasidat Adeleke faced disappointment in the women’s 200m semi-finals, the Dubliner clocking 22.81 (0.7m/s) to finish fifth, one place shy of a place in the final.

Olympic champion Gabby Thomas took victory in 21.88 ahead of world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, with Kayla White third in 22.28 and Fabienne Hoenke edging Adeleke to the final in 22.72.

Drawn in lane three, Adeleke didn’t get off to a good start and was seventh and last at the halfway mark, but battled back into contention over the latter half, coming up less than a tenth of a second shy of a place in the final.

She finished 10th overall, earning $8,000 in prize money. She declined to speak to the media afterwards.

More to follow…