Mark English has won gold in the 800m at the European Athletics Championships, becoming the first Irish male athlete to win the title.
At 33 years old, the athlete from Letterkenny in County Donegal was six years older than any other runner in Thursday night's final. He defeated Croatia's Marino Bloudek to complete his career European Championship medal collection of four bronzes and one silver with a gold.
His father, Joe English, revealed after the race that the secret ingredient behind the historic victory was a series of prayers and candles lit by Mark's 99-year-old grandmother, Eileen.
Speaking to RTÉ and the Irish Mail on Sunday, Joe English said his Mayo-born mother insisted on going to church on the morning of the final to pray for her grandson.
"She doesn’t go out of the house much now, but the morning of the final she said to my sister, 'Will you take me down to the church? I want to say a few prayers and light a few candles,'" Joe said.
He added that while his mother rarely shows emotion, "she cries her eyes out whenever he gets a medal."
Family Support and Emotional Scenes
Joe suggested that families of winning athletes should be supplied with a "kit with hankies and buckets" to cope with the emotional toll of major championship races.
He noted that Ade Adeleke, the mother of Irish sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, experienced similar emotion after her daughter claimed European silver just 20 minutes after English's gold medal run on Thursday night. "No more than myself, she needed the bucket," Joe laughed.
Joe also recalled an emotional conversation after the final with silver medalist Marino Bloudek of Croatia.
"He saw me and said, 'You have to be Mark's dad. You look very like him,'" Joe said. "When I asked what he’d said to Mark after the race, he replied: 'All I said to him was, you were the best in Europe this year, and you deserve it.'"
Tributes from Athletics Legends
British Olympic legend Sebastian Coe, the two-time 1,500m Olympic champion and head of World Athletics, also approached Joe to acknowledge the historic scale of the victory for Irish athletics.
According to Joe, Coe told him: "Your man is the first man in the nation to get gold in the Europeans."
Coe pointed out that legendary Irish runners had never claimed a European outdoor title, noting: "Ron Delaney didn’t do it, Eamonn Coughlan didn’t, nor Frank O’Mara, nor Marcus O’Sullivan... huge, huge icons, and your guy was the first."
Delaney won gold in the 1,500m at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Coughlan was world 5,000m champion in 1983, O'Mara was a double world indoor 5,000m champion, and O'Sullivan won three world indoor 1,500m titles.
Coe added: "I hope they get a chance to celebrate it in your own country, because we’re talking about it so much here in the UK."
Dedication and Altitude Training
Despite the celebrations in Letterkenny and across County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, English will not be taking part in homecoming parties immediately as he returns straight to training.
A qualified medical doctor, English has become a "disciple of the sport" in recent years, working with sports science specialists and setting up a high-altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain.
His achievements come despite receiving modest financial funding of €25,000 annually over the past two years, an amount below the national minimum wage.
Joe, a retired mathematics teacher, teacher trainer and third-level lecturer, explained that Mark's introverted nature means he does not seek commercial deals. "He’s an introverted sort of a guy... he lets his feet do the talking," Joe said. "So he wouldn’t be attracting big sponsors because of that persona. But it’s not all about money. It’s about someone wanting to follow their dream and not having any regrets, and that’s what he’s at."
English's family, including his father, mother Brigid, and two older sisters, have traveled across Ireland and internationally to support him throughout his career, attending three Olympic Games.
Irish Fanbase Mobilised
Paul McKee, Athletics Ireland regional development officer for Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth, praised English's performance and longevity. McKee, who represented Ireland at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, called English "the gift that keeps on giving."
"He’s like a fine wine: he keeps getting better," McKee said. "I’d expect to be seeing him going for a medal at the next Olympics in two years."
McKee added that young athletes in County Donegal will be eager to meet English when he visits his local running club. "Kids love a champion. He’ll come back to his club in Donegal, they’ll all want autographs," he said.
Athletics Ireland president Bríd Golden praised the traveling Irish supporters, stating that there has "never ever been as many Irish fans supporting the Irish athletes." She credited Seamus Carey, chairperson of the Irish Athletics Supporters' Club, for mobilizing fans and creating an atmosphere praised by rival teams.
Golden described Thursday night as historic for Irish sport, celebrating English's gold medal at 33 years of age alongside Adeleke's silver medal performance 20 minutes later.
