By Yavuz Yavuz
Men’s 800m semi-finals were historic for Ireland for a number of reasons. Mark English, the country’s everlasting middle-distance star, had set a new national record at 1:43.37 earlier this year and joined a packed group of men’s 800m runners under 1:44 coming to Tokyo. In the heats, Cian McPhillips stunned the 100-strong Irish crowd in the stands by winning his heat and joining English in the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, where English came in third in the slowest heat and was eliminated from the championships, McPhillips lifted the moods with another stunning heat victory in 1:43.18 — not only a new national record, but also the fastest ever semi-final time run in the world championships. This way, he became the first Irish runner to make men’s 800m final in world championships.
The Longford native has been under the local spotlights since he was 16 and broke John Treacy’s 44-year-old Irish U18 3000m outdoors record in 8:18.91. A year later, in 2019, he set a new U18 record (the previous one was held by Ciarán Ó Lionáird for 13 years) over 1500 metres in 3:46.42.
Specialised in 1500m running during the early years of his career (he was a European junior champion in 2021), he made the transition to 800m — over which he had set an Irish junior record in 2021 — in 2023. In European Indoors this year in Apeldoorn, he fell in the heats of 800m and ran the semi-final with a stress fracture. His season was interrupted by the calf injury he sustained there as he missed 11 weeks of training, but he managed to make the right progress to show up for the world championships in Tokyo.
“I worked quite hard this year, but I still think I didn’t have a full understanding of what was needed, and I’ve been tweaking and learning throughout the year. I went back to a first-principles approach” he said after the race. “My coach, Joe Ryan, did a great job making sure I was going to peak coming into [world championships].”
In fact, McPhillips trailed behind Mark English at the Irish Championships this year. But when it mattered the most, he rose to the occasion. He ran the second lap in a stunning time of 51.26 seconds, climbing from fifth place to first ahead of the likes of Max Burgin, European champion Gabriel Tual, and former world champion Donavan Brazier.
MCPHILLIPS AGAINST THE WORLD
The final lived up to all expectations, as all eight athletes clocked under 1:43. But the podium belonged to the medallists of Paris 2024. While Emmanuel Wanyonyi won his first world title by setting a new championship record in 1:41.86, Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati followed by a margin of 0.04 seconds for silver. Defending champion Marco Arop of Canada came in third.
McPhillips was eighth coming into the last 100 metres but launched a stunning kick to make his way to fourth. Although his effort was not enough to secure a medal, he ran faster than any Irishman in history once more and set another national record at 1:42.15.
“That was almost an Olympic final. Got beaten by the three medallists, I thought I might have had them if I had a bit more homestraight to work with but that will come next time. I gave it everything I had, I don’t think I could have run it any differently. I think I show pretty decent tactical awareness in the first rounds, so I’m proud of the way this has gone.”
In any case, Cian McPhillips showed he’s got quite a lot in the tank to show for in the coming seasons. He too, hopes the only way he can go from here to be up:
“However I run this year is hopefully going to be the floor, not the ceiling, as what I have done this year hasn’t been optimal.”
