In between the rough and tumbles on another frantic morning of Olympic Games action at the Stade de France, Mark English produced one of the coolest runs of his life when cruising straight through to the semi-finals of the 800 metres.
Sarah Lavin had earlier done likewise in her heats of the 100m hurdles, before Brian Fay found himself among the carnage that was the men’s 5,000m heats, where five runners went down between the two races, and Fay was unable to make any impact.
Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy were also back on the track for the second time in 24 hours, for the repechage round of the 1,500m, and despite another brave run from O’Sullivan she again missed out on the semi-final by just one place, and unfortunately it was the same again for Healy too – and with that ends their first Olympic experience.
They will be back, only for English, competing in his third Olympics, getting through his 800m heat was the least of his ambitions. The 31-year-old from Donegal ran with that clear intent when nailing second right alongside Gabriel Tual from France, one of the medal favourites after running 1:41.61 this summer.
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Only the top three in each heat progressed, the rest going into that now mostly dreaded repechage round. And English made absolutely sure of it, Tual just keeping his vest in front in 1:45.13, English right alongside him in 1:45.15.
“Yeah, the plan worked out, I’m delighted to be in the semi-final,” he said. The plan was to be in contention at 400m and 600m and I managed to do that. I’m delighted to come through that without having to navigate too much and getting a clean enough ride through.
“It’s been going really well all season. This year I ran a PB over 400m, 600m and 800m. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in, the difficulty of my event is it’s quite competitive at the minute so it’s another challenge in the semi-final, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Tshepiso Masalela from Botswana took out the pace, and held on for third, but another run like this from English in Friday’s semi-finals would give him every chance of making the final. At the end of the six heats, English was ranked sixth fastest of the automatic semi-final qualifiers.
“Yeah, it’s hard to know if he was fully pushing himself there,” English said of finishing so close to Tual. “It’s my best finish ever at an Olympic Games so it’s nice to get that. I felt really good, and that bodes really well for the semi-final.”
Lavin had described the heats of the 100m hurdles as “the scary round”, but in the end she had nothing to fear as she also cruised through to the semi-finals in second, running a solid 12.73 behind Jamaica’s world champion Danielle Williams (12.59). The wind reading was a perfectly still 0.0m/s.
“It was nerve-racking because the crowd were so loud,” Lavin said. “I got out well, and then it was like ‘keep it clean here’. The big Q [automatic qualification], that’s all. I think I’ll need a bit more now for Friday.”
There was no repechage round in the men’s 5,000m, no fastest losers either – so one shot only, the top eight in each of the two heats progressing to Saturday’s final. After four athletes fell inside the last 500m of the first heat, in two different incidents, Fay did manage to avoid trouble in the second heat, where Abdi Nur from the USA also fell coming into the straight.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen was back on the track just over 12 hours after being run into fourth of the 1,500m. And while the Norwegian ran exactly as he likes it, taking control over the last lap to win in 13:51.59, Fay was never in contention for the top eight, and finished 13th in 13:55.35. Less than four seconds back, but a long way off the final.
Three of the fallers were reinstated on appeal, including Britain’s George Mills, which will make for a 19-man final and the potential for some more carnage there.
The session finished off with the two rounds of the women’s 1,500m repechage, O’Sullivan up first after missing automatic qualification by just one place in her opening heat.
Birke Haylom from Ethiopia, who has run well under four minutes, went from the gun, running the first lap inside 60 seconds and soon opening a 25m lead. She was reeled in, but still held to win, with O’Sullivan just under half a second away of making the semi-final, fourth in 4:03.73 as Esther Guerrero from Spain holding on for third in 4:03.15.
“On one hand, I’ve had two of my best runs this year, and my best since last,” said the 22-year-old O’Sullivan, who appeared to lose contact down the backstretch, before one last surge brought her back in contention.
“But you don’t want to be one spot out, two days in row. I just need to be one place higher next year, so I know I can do better. I’d just love to have got one more run.”
The 23-year-old Healy also missed out in her repechage, fourth in 4:07.60, less than a second between the top four there, with Italy’s Sintayehu Vissa winning in 4:06.71.
In the high jump qualification, the two men who shared the gold medal in Tokyo, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Esha Barshim from Qatar, endured a rough morning. And although they both managed to qualify, Tamberi looked well off his best, while Barshim injured his left calf muscle.
At least they made the final, good enough for now.
