English holds his nerve to reach European Athletics Indoors 800m semi-finals

A strong finish was enough for Mark English to secure a place in the semi-finals of the men’s 800m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships 2025 at the Omnisport Apeldoorn in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

The Finn AC member’s time of 1:46.24 was his fourth fastest ever over the distance indoors, showing guile and experience as he stormed up the inside lane late from fourth place on to secure his progression.

With only the top two guaranteed to go through, English, having started from lane six, came through behind Poland’s Patryk Sierandski, who won with a PB of 1:46.32.

Justin Davies from Great Britain was third in 1:46.56, Louey Ouerrat of France fourth with 1:46.40, with Tibo de Smet, Belgium, fifth with 1:46.79 and the fancied Swede Andreas Kramer finished with 1:50.17 for sixth place. The semi-finals are scheduled to take place on Saturday, from 7:13pm.

Letterkenny native English, 31, has secured four European medals down the years, including bronze at the 2014 and 2022 European Championships in Zurich and Munich respectively, silver at the 2015 European Indoor Championships in Prague, and bronze at the 2019 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow. 

At the Millrose Games last month in New York, English clocked 1:45.15 to break the Irish record. 

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English is joined in the Netherlands by Finn Valley clubmate Arlene Crossan from Letterkenny, who is part of the 4x400m women’s relay team alongside Sharlene Mawdsley, Phil Healy, Rachel McCann, Cliodhna Manning, and Lauren Cadden, that will contest the final on Sunday at 6:50pm.