**!https://highlandradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Greg-and-Mark-English.pngEight years to get 0.13 seconds faster. How do you keep believing when the stopwatch won’t budge?**
Irish Olympian and European 800m champion Mark English knows the patience elite sport demands. After running a personal best in 2013, he waited until 2021 to improve it — a breakthrough that also broke a longstanding Irish record and secured his place at the Tokyo Olympics.
In this episode, Mark joins me to explore his journey from Donegal to international athletics, his early passion for sport and the challenge of pursuing medicine alongside competing at the highest level.
We discuss the injuries, setbacks and breakthroughs that shaped his career, including rebuilding after injury and racing against some of the greatest athletes in the sport. What keeps you motivated through years of uncertainty? How do you manage the physical and mental demands? And what changes when you commit fully to finding out how good you can be?
A conversation about the person behind the performances, the cost of ambition and the persistence behind every fraction of a second.
The post The Greg Hughes Podcast Ep44 : Mark English: The Making of His Best Years appeared first on Highland Radio - Latest Donegal News and Sport.
