Mark English third in Switzerland as Luke McCann nicks second

Mark English was third over 800m at the Galà dei Castelli in Bellinzona, Switzerland on Monday evening.

English was pipped to second by fellow Irish athlete Luke McCann.

A new personal best of 1:45.33 saw McCann, of UCD AC, take second behind the winner, French athlete Gabriel Tual, who clocked 1:43.98 for a new meet record.

Finn Valley AC's English nipped over in third, finishing in 1:45.56, getting in ahead of France's Corentin Le Clezio (1:45.89) and Tobias Gronstad of Norway (1:45.94)

Last week, English ran 1:45.17 at Palio Città della Quercia in Ital where he finished second, beaten only by Catalin Tecuceanu, the Romanian-born Italian athlete who was the European bronze medallist.

At the recent Olympic Games, the Letterkenny native reached the 800m semi-finals.

After clocking 1:45.15 in his heat – his fastest ever Olympic time – English was sixth in his semi, finishing in 1:45.98, trailing off in the closing stages having led the way with 200m to go.