Mark English makes history with European gold as Adeleke takes silver
Mark English has won gold for Ireland in the 800 metres at the European Championships in Birmingham.
He becomes the first Irish man in history to win a European Championships gold medal.
At 33 years of age, the qualified doctor from Donegal was the oldest in the field.
Speaking at the end of the race, English told RTÉ: "I can't sum it up. I think I'm relieved more than anything. I really wanted a gold medal today."
In a race where he was always close to the front, English ran 1:45.26, beating Croatia’s Marino Bloudek in second and Mohamed Attaoui in third.
Rhasidat Adeleke caused a major upset by taking silver in the 200-metre final, splitting the two pre-race favourites, Britain's Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith, who took gold and bronze respectively.
Adeleke, who has suffered setbacks during the year, with two hamstring injuries, started strong and was in medal contention throughout, closing in on the leader towards the last few metres of the race, finishing in a time of 22.28, behind Hunt at 22.19, and one tenth of a second ahead of Asher-Smith.
The Tallaght star - who won a European silver medal in Rome two years ago - also broke the national 200-metre record with that time.
After the race, reflecting on a difficult year, Adeleke said: "The main thing I did was keep showing up."
"I now want to find gratitude in everything," she told RTÉ.
English's 800 metre victory came a day after he produced a remarkable performance in his semi-final, smashing a championship record that had stood for 48 years.
His 1:43.49 took over 0.35 seconds off the championship record, which had stood to Olaf Beyer from East Germany since 1978.
“I’m confident no matter how it goes,” English said after the semi-final win.
“I just have to trust myself, my own abilities. And I’ve practised a couple of things in training, so I know what I’m capable of. I had a lot left in the last 100m, so that always bodes well.
“My self-belief has always been there. I’ve just worked on a few things over the last year to get myself physiologically in the condition to be able to do what I did today. I think that’s the main difference, as well as building up experience race-wise. But I think physiologically I’m just in a better place this year.”
Just before the race, it was confirmed that Britain’s Max Burgin had withdrawn from the 800m, after picking up an injury in the warm-up.
