Mark English advances to semi-finals, Rhasidat Adeleke just misses out on final

Mark English has qualified for the 800m semi-finals after a brilliant run on Thursday morning at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

The Donegal man clocked a superb time of 1:44.76, a season-best for the Finn Valley athlete and just 0.05 seconds off the national record that he set in Spain in June 2021.

It was good enough for fourth in his heat behind Canadian Marco Arop and Mexican Jesus Tonatiu Lopez – but he was upgraded to third – and automatic qualification for the semi-final - after American Jonah Koech was disqualified post-race.

Running in lane seven, English got off to a good start and was tucked in behind early leader Andreas Kramer.

After Kramer fell back after contact from Koech, English was third heading towards the line before being overtaken on the line by the American, but his result was upgraded.

English's semi-final heat will take place at 3.18am on Friday morning.

Rhasidat Adeleke narrowly missed out on a spot in the 400m finals by just 0.16 seconds as she finished ninth overall.

With the top two automatically advancing to the final, Adeleke finished fourth in her heat with a time of 50.81.

Two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the heat in a season best 49.55 with Candice McLeod taking the other automatic qualification spot. Anna Kiełbasińska’s time of 50.65 from the same heat was enough for one of the qualifying times.

Chris O’Donnell’s World Championship came to an end after he finished seventh in his men’s 400m heat.

O’Donnell ran a time of 46.01 with Kirani James winning the heat in 44.74.

As well as English, Louise Shanahan will also be in action on Friday morning in the women’s 800m heats at 1.50am.