Mark English has lowered his national 800m record for the second time in a week with a superb 1:44.53 run to finish fourth at the Continental Tour meeting in Madrid on Friday night.
On Tuesday, English clocked a new Irish record of 1:44.69 in Turku in Finland, achieving the Olympic qualification standard in the process.
Last night, the Finn Valley AC athlete took a further .16 off that time in the Spanish capital to place fourth in a race won by Belgium's Eliott Crestan.
It marks a welcome return to form for the two-time European bronze medallist after a disappointing showing in this month's European Athletics Championships in Rome, the Donegal man exiting in his heat.
Prior to this week, English's own national record stood at 1:44.71, which he posted in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and which itself broke David Matthews' longstanding Irish record of 1:44.82, which had stood since 1995.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
