English advances to 800m Ultimate Championship final

Mark English has qualified for the 800m final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship after winning his semi-final heat.

The Donegal man, who claimed European gold in Birmingham in August, ran a time of 1:43.74 to take one of the four qualification spots on offer in the heat with Italy's Francesco Pernici, Canada’s Marco Arop – silver medallist at the 2024 Olympics – and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati – third in Paris – taking the other three spots.

Heat 1 was won by American Brandon Miller, who ran a time of 1.43.86.

The final will take place on Sunday at 6.41pm Irish time as English competes in his first world final.

The inaugural biennial invitational sees the world's top athletes will compete for a prize pot of $10m (€8.67m).

Sharlene Mawdsley was not involved in the women's 400m final after she failed to qualify from the semi-finals on Friday .