European medallist Mark English (UCD AC) placed seventh in the 800m at the Diamond League meeting in New York on Saturday, 13th of June. English faced a high quality field as is accustomed with these races including Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha of Kenya.
The athletes went through the bell in 50.10 seconds with English way off the pace at the back in about 11th place. Rudisha opened up over the second half of the race to win in a time of 1.43.58 with English rallying slightly over the second lap to finish seventh in a time of 1.46.12.
Next up for English is likely to be the European Team Championships which take place in Crete from the 20th-21st of June. The Irish team announcement for these championships will be made on Monday, 15th of June.
Le Cheile International
A high quality athletics meet took place at the Le Cheile Track in Kildare; the event is run by the Irish Milers Club along with the host club Le Cheile. Karl Griffin (UCD AC) won a tight men’s 800m race in a time of 1.48.05 with John Travers (Donore Harriers AC) best of the Irish athletes in the 1,500m placing second in a time of 3.41.43. It was second place also for Kerry Flaherty (Newcastle AC) as she recorded a new personal best of 4.12.79 in the women’s 1500m A race.
