Mark English carved half a second off his Irish indoor 800m record when powering to victory in 1:44.65 at the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting on Sunday afternoon. It continues a fine start to the year for English, who opened his season last Wednesday with an Irish indoor 600m record, clocking 1:15.80 at the Track and Field Live meeting in Abbotstown. Nonetheless, it proved another breakthrough year for English, who won European Indoor bronze and broke his Irish record three times outdoors – the mark of 1:43.37 he ran in August later broken by Cian McPhillips, who ran 1:42.15 to finish fourth in the world 800m final. McPhillips will have his eyes on English’s 600m record when he lines up at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Saturday. Emma Moore was also in action in Luxembourg, and the Galway City Harrier again broke new ground over 800m, setting an Irish U-23 indoor record of 2:02.34 to finish second behind local athlete Fanny Arendt (2:00.83).

Source: Irish Independent January 18, 2026 22:24 UTC