The good doctor was clinical to the last on Sunday evening in Santry.
With the precision of a surgeon, Dr Mark English – albeit now on a break from his profession as he concentrates on getting what he can from his athletics career – won his 10th Irish outdoor title, his 19th in total, with cold execution.
Down the home straight, the Finn Valley AC man kicked to leave Cian McPhillips in his slipstream and retain his crown in 1:48.76.
There felt something of a message to the doubters in how English, fist clenched, crossed the line in front of a huge crowd in Santry.
“That one felt better today,” English told Donegal Live.
“I felt great. I knew Cian was in good shape and he’s the second quickest Irish man at the minute. You’re talking about racing the best Irishman to ever compete against me. I knew that I had to execute my exact race plan today. It worked out. I’m very happy. I had a plan and I executed that.”
English, out of lane 3, won with McPhillips half-a-second behind in 1:49.26
McPhillips hasn’t been active this year, though his only outdoor run until this weekend saw him clock an excellent 1:44.19 to win the Morton Games in July; a time that put him second to English on the all-time standings.
The build-up to the final at Morton Stadium, one of the highlights of the National Senior Championships, was dominated by talk of the showdown between English and Cian McPhillips.
The 32-year-old from Letterkenny said: “I thought that the media was putting a lot of emotional weight behind contenders coming in today. I felt like a lot of the pressure was on me to come out and defend my legacy or something.
“I did feel nervous. He had a number of guys there from his training group and I knew that they’d have a plan.
“I had to just try and run the race and maximise any advantage I had and to minimise any advantage that they might have.
“It’s always hard to know how these races will turn out, but thankfully it’s another win.”
English arrived at these Championships having won this title nine times and a late burst on the home straight to finish in 1:48.92 in his heat with McPhillips also winning his heat in 1:52.58.
English and McPhillips played a bit of cat and mouse over the opening lap-and-a-half. English began to make a move with around 150m to go and down the home straight he pushed the accelerator.
This was only McPhillips’ second time in an Irish final, the Longford native going second to Harry Purcell in 2020 as the country eked its way out of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Two weeks ago in London, English – who won a European Indoor bronze medal in March – placed seventh at a Diamond League meet and served something of a notice in outlining disappointment at a 1:44.07 attempt in a race loaded with some of the world’s leading 800m lights.
A link-up with new coach Justin Rinaldi at the back end of 2024 has coincided with English hitting the high notes; the fastest five outdoor times of his career have all come in 2025. He also set a new Irish indoor record, 1:45.15, in February.
He said: “It’s an accumulation of all these changes that I’ve made over the last year.
“The (training) volume has increased. I have done more altitude training and I’ve done more speed training. I’m in with a group of guys who are top of the world: Josh Hoey, Peter Bol and Tony Van Diepen. It raises my standards when I’m with them.”
There was some speculation before the weekend that English might go down to the 400m, an event in which he was the silver medalist in 2013.
He said: “I said I’d stick to what I’m good at and what I know best and that’s the 800m. I ran the 400m here about 12 years ago. I was in some doubt about my ability to go at the opening lap pace in the 800m recently, but a couple of good sessions put my mind at ease and then I didn’t need to do the 400m.”
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English twice dipped below 1:44 this summer when running 1:43.92, a new Irish record, at Hengelo and following up with a 1:43.98 in Paris.
Twice in the space of 11 days, English broke his Irish record with a 1:44.34 in Bydgoszcz preceding his Hengelo outing.
Now, the World Athletics Championships, which take place in Tokyo next month, are coming onto the horizon for English.
He will return to altitude for training in the coming weeks and could yet have a race before he flies to Japan.
English added: “I’m feeling amazing.”
