Mark English has admitted he was very nervous before this morning’s 800m heat at the Olympic Games in Paris but used those nerves to his advantage.
The Finn Valley athlete ran his fastest ever time at an Olympic Games to finish second in a time of 1:45.15 behind France’s fancied Gabriel Tual (1:45.13).
The Letterkenny man said “I was thinking that walking out (his nervousness): this is probably more nerve-wracking than 2016.
“Athletics is a sport where you can use your nerves to run better and thankfully it all worked out. It’s my best finish ever at an Olympic Games so it’s nice to get that.
“I felt really good and that bodes really well for the semi-final. The first lap was the strangest thing, as I felt so comfortable. I think we ran 50/51 and it felt really easy.”
English sat in third for much of the race before exploding in the last 100 metres and almost catching the eventual heat winner Tual.
Recalling the race he added “The plan worked out, I’m delighted to be in the semi-final,” said English. “The plan was to be in contention at 400 and 600 and I managed to do that, I’m delighted to come through that without having to navigate too much and getting a clean enough ride through.”
The Dublin-based doctor said he’d been training “really well” in recent weeks feels in the best shape of his life.
But he’s not jumping ahead of himself and knows Friday’s semi-final is going to be another huge task for him.
The first two in each of he three heats and the two fastest runners up will make up the eight finalists.
English admitted “The difficulty of my event is it’s quite competitive at the minute so it’s another challenge in the semi-final but I’m looking forward to it.”
