Mark English became the first Irish male athlete to win European Championships gold, timing his run to perfection in a slow, tactical final that was thrown into chaos minutes before the start by Max Burgin's shock withdrawal.
The men’s 800m was rocked by the withdrawal of Max Burgin just moments before the race was due to take place, but the injury-prone Brit would have found Mark English difficult to handle, especially in a slow race with a 53.4 first lap and modest winning time of 1:45.26.
Less than 15 minutes before the gun fired, the stadium was stunned to hear that Burgin had pulled out, apparently with a hamstring issue during warm-up. There were shades of the World Championships in 2022 where he arrived in Eugene ranked No.1 but withdrew from his heat in warm-up and soon ended up in a mobility scooter.
At his best, Burgin is a phenomenal talent but he would have had to have been in top form to challenge English. The 33-year-old Irishman has enjoyed a brilliant summer and in his semi-final on Wednesday in Birmingham he broke the longstanding championship record held by Olaf Beyer.
In the final Mohamed Attaoui of Spain moved into the lead on the first lap, with Marino Bloudek of Croatia edging into pole position at the bell. English, meanwhile, settled into second place, almost always on the shoulder of the leader, with Britain’s Ben Pattison, in contrast, running wide further back.
Into the home straight, English powered past Bloudek, easing to gold as he became the first Irishman to win gold at these championships. Behind, Bloudek was delighted to win silver as Attaoui finished well to take third, just ahead of Spanish team-mate David Barroso, with Francesco Pernici of Italy fifth and Pattison sixth.
Experience probably helped as well as this was English’s sixth European final – and his first gold. English, who is a qualified doctor, won his first European medal, a bronze, as a 21-year-old in 2014 and was third in Munich in 2022.
The Alexander Stadium had a large number of Irish fans among the 20,000-plus audience on Thursday night.
"It's just relief. I have been trying for a lifetime to get a title," English told BBC. "It was relief in 2014 when I got my first medal and relief today as well. It is just amazing.
"I have made a few changes, moved to a new coach [Justin Rinaldi] and he has been amazing. Amazing in terms of advice before races. I have to give big praise to him."
English added: "I planned to make a move at the bell. I did not want to go much earlier as I needed my energy for those last 200m. I really wanted that gold so badly.
"I had set everything out for this champs today. I did not want to finish my career without it. I was so relieved at the line I did not know what to do. I had dreamt about it but you never know whether it would become real.
"The championship record yesterday was great but this is what I really came for. It is 16 years since I was on top of the podium at the youth Olympics so it has been a long wait.
"I have so many people to thank back home in Ireland. It felt like half of Ireland was in the stadium tonight with the Irish singing. I did not realise how many Irish were here until I saw all the flags when I got off the bus. I will savour every moment of the ceremony tomorrow for sure.
“Gutted!” said Pattison. “It was a great opportunity to add to my medal collection. Gave myself a lot to do and then my legs weren’t there. I thought ‘wait and wait’ because on my day I can have a good last 100m but today it wasn’t there.”
Men's 800m: 1 Mark English (IRL) 1:45.26; 2 Marino Bloudek (CRO) 1:45.62; 3 Mohamed Attaoui (ESP) 1:45.71; 4 David Barroso (ESP) 1:45.75; 5 Francesco Pernici (ITA) 1:45.77; 6 Ben Pattison (GBR) 1:46.14; 7 Corentin le Clézio (FRA) 1:46.24
