Mark English smashed his Irish indoor 800m record for victory at the CMCM Indoor Meeting in Luxembourg, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, on Sunday (18) evening.
The five-time European medallist tracked Poland’s Maciej Wyderka into the last lap before kicking to the front with just over 100 metres remaining, taking the victory in 1:44.65 which also equalled the meeting record set last year by Spain’s Elvin Canales.
English might have relinquished his Irish outdoor 800m record last year to Cian McPhillips who improved to 1:42.15 at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo but the 32-year-old achieved the distinction of becoming the first Irishman to break the 1:45-barrier indoors.
English improved his Irish indoor record of 1:45.15 which he set last year by half-a-second to 1:44.65 and he moves to equal sixth in the European indoor all-time list for the 800m.
Wyderka held on for second in 1:45.38 with his Polish teammate Patryk Sieradzki finishing a distant third in 1:47.09.
In other significant middle distance action, Belgium’s Pieter Sisk also won the men’s 1500m in a meeting record of 3:34.66. He won in solo fashion ahead of Spaniards Carlos Saez (3:35.94) and 2022 European 800m champion Mariano Garcia (3:36.44) with Pol Moya finishing fifth in an Andorran record of 3:38.37.
Van der Weken delivers again in the 60m
Luxembourg’s Patrizia Van der Weken took her fourth successive victory in the women’s 60m at her home meeting.
Van der Weken, who became her country’s first ever medallist at both the European and World Athletics Indoor Championships in 2025, sprinted to victory in the 60m final in 7.14 - the same time as she recorded in the heat - ahead of Spain’s Jael Bestue in 7.18.
Van der Weken couldn’t quite achieve the sprint double, finishing third in the 200m in 23.28 in a race won by Spain’s Paula Sevilla in 23.16 but her victory in the 60m was just one of a string of notable performances by Luxembourg’s athletes on home soil.
Better known as a 400m specialist, Luxembourg’s Fanny Arendt stormed away from a strong field to win the 800m in a national indoor record and outright lifetime best of 2:00.83, winning by over one-and-a-half seconds from Ireland’s Emma Moore in 2:02.34 and Poland's Margarita Koczanowa in 2:02.42.
In the 3000m, Belgium’s Ruben Verheyden pulled away in the closing stages from his namesake Ruben Querinjean, winning in 7:40.31 ahead of home favourite Querinjean who improved his Luxembourgish indoor record to 7:40.72.
There was also a national record for Victoria Rausch in the 60m hurdles heats. She clocked 8.08 to reach the final which was won by France’s Sacha Alessandrini in 8.00.
Szymanski repeats with 7.48 in the 60m hurdles
One year after winning in 7.41, European indoor champion Jakub Szymanski achieved back-to-back victories at this meeting albeit in a much more competitive final in the 60m hurdles.
Szymanski stopped the clock at 7.48, holding off Spain’s world and Olympic fourth-placer Enrique Llopis and Belgium’s Elie Bacari who closed down on the Pole off the final barrier, both of whom were timed at 7.50 to finish second and third respectively. For Bacari, his time was also a national record.
Other highlights included Germany’s Jean-Paul Bredau winning the men’s 400m in a meeting record of 45.94 and wins for France’s Berenice Petit in the pole vault at 4.45m and for Spain’s Jaime Guerra in the long jump with 7.84m.
The next live streamed meeting will be the BAUHAUS-Indoor Galan in Stockholm, another World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, which takes place on 22 January.
