MARK ENGLISH revealed his championship experience ensured he would be competing for another European Indoor medal.
The Finn Valley AC star earned a spot in today’s 800m final in Apeldoorn after an impressive semi-final run.
English, a two-time medallist at these championships, showed all his know-how to advance in third with 1:45.89.
The 31-year-old said: “It’s job done. I’m happy to make the final, that was the main aim.
“I got in the top three and I can’t wait for tomorrow.
“The race kind of worked out as I expected it to, there was one or two surprises.
“It was a real championship race, thankfully I have experience of plenty of them over the years and that stood to me.”
In the first semi-final, Cian McPhillips did not advance to the deciding race after a time of 1:47.40 saw him finish seventh.
The Longford athlete — competing at only his second ever major senior international — was in contention until the final lap but ran out of gas.
McPhillips, 22 — who qualified for his semi-final following an appeal after a fall in Friday’s heats — sighed: “I was hoping to do a little bit better. I put myself in the mix.
“The fall shook me up a little bit, I had a very seized-up calf and stiff knee and I could only actually do some strides but that’s no excuse, I just didn’t have it on the day.”
Earlier in the evening, Bori Akinola failed to advance to the final of the men’s 60m.
The 23-year-old clocked the second-fastest time of his life, 6.63, to finish fourth, placing him 11th overall.
He said: “It’s disappointing. It’s my second-fastest time ever but I was hoping to bring my best, to PB, run 6.60 or under which is the B standard for World Indoors but it wasn’t to be.”
Today marks the final day of the championships and there will be plenty of Irish interest.
Kate O’Connor competes in the Pentathlon, Sarah Healy and Andrew Coscoran race in 3000m finals, English goes in the men’s 800m final and the women’s 4x400m relay team will bring the championships to a close.
