English stamps his class on first day of GloHealth national indoors

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English stamps his class on first day of GloHealth national indoors

27 February 2016

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English stamps his class as O'Flaherty wins race of the day

Mark English (UCD) stamped his class on day one of the GloHealth National Indoor Championships with a 1:48.15 front-running performance in the heats of the men’s 800m in Athlone (February 27th).

“I tried to run 25 for the first lap, come through in 51 high, 52 low (through 400m) and 1:18 (through 600m),” explained English on his aggressive race tactics. “It’s always tough to battle out the last 200m on your own. It’s still a solid run and I’m happy with the shape I’m in.”

The UCD medical student was having a cut off the 1:46.50 world indoor qualifiying standard, and, although he didn’t reach that mark, he can still be selected. “I didn’t feel there was any reason not to,” he continued on running a fast pace. “It’s a perfect opportunity to try and get two races back-to-back. I think the most important thing is to analyse how you felt afterwards and I felt strong so that’s good. I’m happy with how today went.”

English goes into tomorrow afternoon’s final in search of his fourth national indoor title and will look for another fast run out.

Ciara Mageean (UCD) didn’t have to run as fast in the women’s 800m but showed her class winning in 2:08.85 in an event that had great depth throughout the heats.

Swinford’s Michaela Walsh continues to outline her star potential and she smashed her national junior indoor shot put record in the first event of the day. Walsh pushed the shot out to 14.92m, beating her previous best of 14.36m by quite some margin – a world junior B standard. It was still only good enough for silver with Tralee Harrier’s Claire Fitzgerald edging the gold with 14.95.

Celbridge’s Sinead O’Connor took the women’s 3,000m race walk in 14:50.69 while Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny) was delighted to finally win gold in the men’s 5,000m walk in 20:17.81.

“After 12 attempts at nationals indoors I finally came home with the gold,” said Boyce happily afterwards. He will race in three weeks time over 20km in Dudince in Slovakia.

Kerry O’Flaherty (Newcastle) won the race of the day, and the battle of the Olympic steeplechase qualifiers, in the women’s 3,000m in 9:11.17. O'Flaherty stretched away from her rivals in the final laps leaving Sara Treacy (Dunboyne) in her wake in second in 9:19.96 and Michelle Finn (Leevale) third in 9:21.93. O'Flaherty will return in the women’s 1500m tomorrow in a bid for double gold.

Sarah McCarthy (Mid Sutton) saved her best for last to win the women’s long jump in 5.90m with her last attempt. Cathriona Farrell (Craughwell) won the women’s high jump with 1.75m. Ian Rogers (Clonliffe Harriers) retained his pole vault title in 4.60m while Shane Joyce (Cushinstown) won the men’s triple jump in 14.12m.

For full results of the action click HERE