Mark English (born 18 March 1993) is an Irish

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to . The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distanc ...

. He is the Irish national record holder over

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

, both outdoors and indoors.

Early life

English's home town is

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

. He attended secondary school at St Eunan's College. He only made the switch to athletics during his

Transition Year Transition Year (TY) () is an optional one-year school programme that can be taken in the year after the Junior Cycle in Ireland. However, depending on school population and funding it may not be available, and in other schools it is compulsory. ...

, having previously played

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

for Letterkenny Gaels at under-age level. While a member of Letterkenny Athletic Club in his teens, he tested himself against the Gaelic footballer Caolan Ward. English studied medicine at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD), where his classmates included

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

's multiple All-Ireland winning

er Jack McCaffrey—considered that sport's quickest player. English has issued a challenge to McCaffrey to take him on over

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

. After qualifying as a doctor in 2019, he initially intended to step aside from medical practice in order to focus on athletics full-time, but when the 2020 Olympics were postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, he took the opportunity to complete his 12-month

medical internship A medical (or surgical) intern is a physician in training who has completed medical school and has a medical degree, but does not yet have a license to practice medicine unsupervised. Medical education generally ends with a period of practical tr ...

Career

At the

2014 European Athletics Championships The 2014 European Athletics Championships was held in Zürich, Switzerland, between 12 and 17 August 2014. It was the first time that Switzerland had hosted the European Athletics Championships since 1954 European Athletics Championships, 1954. G ...

, English won a bronze medal in the

event. On 8 March at the

2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 5 to 8 March 2015 in the O2 Arena (Prague), O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. Bidding process Prague was chosen as the host of the Championships on the European Athletics council ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, English won a silver medal. In 2014, English finished 2nd at the

Adidas Grand Prix The USATF New York Grand Prix is an annual athletics meeting held at Icahn Stadium in New York City, New York. The event was part of the IAAF Grand Prix from 2007 to 2009. For 2010 it was promoted to the top-level Diamond League through 2015. ...

as part of the

2014 IAAF Diamond League The 2014 IAAF Diamond League was the fifth edition of the annual Diamond League. It consisted of fourteen one-day track and field meetings, starting on May 9, 2014, in Doha, Qatar and ending on September 5, 2014, in Brussels, Belgium. Other events ...

. English finished 4th at the

2014 IAAF Continental Cup The 2014 IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field sporting event that was held in Marrakech, Morocco, on 13–14 September 2014. It was the second edition of the IAAF Continental Cup since the name and format was changed from th ...

, representing Team Europe. In 2015, he finished 9th at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China. He represented Ireland at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

in Rio de Janeiro. Later that year, English ran the 2nd quickest of all-time for 500m at the Great CityGames, finishing 2nd to 2016 Olympic 800m winner David Rudisha. On 3 March 2019, English won a bronze medal in the

at the

2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held between 1 and 3 March 2019 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. This was the second time this event was held in the city after the 1990 edition and the third time it was held in the ...

. Following this, the RTÉ analyst

Jerry Kiernan Jeremiah "Fran" Kiernan (31 May 1953 – 21 January 2021) was an Irish long-distance runner. Biography Kiernan was born in Listowel, County Kerry. He represented his native country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, where ...

(himself a former athlete) described English as historically the country's "greatest talent" in middle-distance running. Several years earlier, Kiernan had claimed that English was better than Michael Murphy — the

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

winning football team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

long held to be his county's greatest ever athlete. Kiernan justified this remark with the comment: " urphyis playing against lads from

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

. Mark English is running against Kenyans". In August 2019, English won the 800m at the Birmingham

2019 Diamond League The 2019 Diamond League was the tenth season of the Diamond League, annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It featured fourteen meetings, with the final two me ...

. In August 2022, he won a bronze medal in the 800m at the

2022 European Athletics Championships The 2022 European Athletics Championships were the 25th edition of the European Athletics Championships and were held in Munich, Germany, from 15 to 21 August 2022. They were part of the 2022 European Championships, European Championships, a multi ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In March 2025, he won a bronze medal over 800 metres at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships. In May 2025, he ran a new 800 metres national record of 1:44.34 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

Other work

English has been active in encouraging people to read more books.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:English, Mark 1993 births Living people Athletes from County Donegal Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Gaelic games players from County Donegal Irish male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Ireland People educated at St Eunan's College Sportspeople from Letterkenny World Athletics Championships athletes for Ireland 21st-century Irish sportsmen