Ireland’s Mark English broke one of the longest standing championship records on the third morning session of the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Wednesday (10).
In summary
- Mark English takes down a historic championship record in the 800m semifinals
- English stays on course to win his sixth major medal indoors or outdoors at European level
- The top five all break 1:44 in the third semifinal
English won the second semifinal of the 800m in 1:43.49 to smash Olaf Beyer’s championship record of 1:43.84 which was set all the way back to win the 1978 European Athletics Championships in Prague where the East German upset Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe for the title.
"I didn't know what the championship record was so it was nice to run it. Now we focus on the final tomorrow," said English who views Birmingham 2026 as close to a home championships.
"The Irish fans here are amazing. I heard them before the race, I heard them during the race, I heard them after it. I think close to 15 per cent of tickets sold went to Irish fans so it's amazing to run in front of such a crowd," he added.
In fact, the top three in the second semifinal all finished inside Beyer’s historic mark. After only qualifying by time from the heats, Great Britain’s Ben Pattison ran a much more positive race to finish a close second in 1:43.72 with France’s Corentin Le Clezio third in a lifetime best of 1:43.80.
The fast race was due to Italy’s Francesco Pernici leading the field through 400m in 51.36 and 600m in 1:17.45. Pernici held on for a non-automatic qualifying spot in fifth in 1:43.84 with Spain’s European 800m silver medallist Mohamed Attaoui also qualifying on time in fourth with 1:43.82.
A new champion will be crowned in the 800m final tomorrow night as France’s Gabriel Tual only finished sixth in the first semifinal in 1:45.88 in a race won by Great Britain’s Max Burgin in 1:44.73 ahead of Croatia’s Marino Bloudek and Spain’s David Barroso, both of whom were timed at 1:44.96.
"I think I was doing OK, I was doing nice. But it isn't a straight line. It isn't as easy as mathematics. Sometimes you have the solution, sometimes you don't. We will see what happens in the next few weeks, the next few competitions and coming years," said Tual philosophically.