English makes first global semi-final
Mark English was "delighted" to qualify for his first global semi-final at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing this morning. English finished 5th in his heat but qualified as a fastest loser in 1:46.69 won by Bosnia's Amel Tuka in 1:46.12.
"I’m through and I can look forward to tomorrow," said the UCD athlete afterwards who was knocked out at this stage in Moscow in 2013. "I knew if I got boxed in and was sitting any further back than fourth I’d leave myself too much work to do like two years ago so I wanted to have no regrets.
"I’m delighted. It's my first semi-final at a world championships so I’m going to go out and enjoy it. It’ll probably take a 1:44 high or a 1:45 low to make the final. Aerobically, I felt fine, but I felt a lot of lactic over the last 100m, but not everybody is running super quick, you get that in heats. I don’t care what time I ran.
"My plan was to sit in second or third, sit in and be involved with 300m to go. If you sit any further back it’s so hard to make a move, so I said I’ll let them come at me. Tuka flew by me like a rollercoaster, make your own calls on that one, but I’m happy to make it through as a fastest loser. I said I’d be happy with myself if I crashed out having gone out harder than gone out slower. I wasn’t friends with anybody in that call-up room and I was mentally focused on that race, I was ready for it, so just moving on to tomorrow now."
Semi-final thoughts
"I’m racing guys I’m used to racing tomorrow, and I’ve beaten then before, so I’ll be pretty confident going out there. Overall the heat has been quite tough. In the semi I’ll have to run close to a PB, they’re all going to be fast, it’ll be a quick race and that’s the sort of race that’ll suit me. I like racing in the evening time better, my PB was run at about 8pm, so whatever it is, my biological clock is able to tick at that time." You can check the semi-final draw here
