Cian McPhillips set the Tokyo Olympic Stadium alight on Thursday with a monumental national record en route to the World Championships final for Ireland.
23-year-old McPhillips and veteran Mark English were among the runners in Thursday’s semi-finals, with hopes high that Team Ireland might have a representative in the final.
Recommended
Ultimately, the story of the day was undoubtedly Cian McPhillips’ sensational display in the second of the 800m semi-finals.
The Longford man had produced a storming run in the heats to progress to the semi-finals, but nobody could have foreseen the blistering effort he had prepared for Wednesday.
Coming towards the final bend, McPhillips slowly made inroads towards the leading trio, before blasting past Brit Max Bergin entering the home straight.
McPhillips would come home comfortably ahead in first place to secure his place in the final on his first-ever appearance at the World Athletics Championships.
As @GregAllenRTE said, the maths student has got his calculations right!
Not only has Longford’s Cian McPhillips won his semi-final heat to get into an 800m World final but he’s set an Irish record in the process #Tokyo2025
📺 https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7 pic.twitter.com/BPt2PNoWG9
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 18, 2025
His time of 1:43.18 was the fastest of any runner in the semi-finals, and blitzed the previous Irish national record of 1:43.92 from Mark English earlier this year.
It truly was one of the all-time great Irish runs at a World Championships, and he wholly deserved the fulsome praise that came his way from RTÉ’s panel of Irish athletics legends.
READ HERE: Sonia O’Sullivan Has Sharlene Mawdsley Relay Theory After 400m Semi-Final Exit
READ HERE: Rob Heffernan Says African Giants Should Be Taking Anti-Doping Advice From Ireland
Cian McPhillips reaches World Championships 800m final
Sonia O’Sullivan and Rob Heffernan were not ruling out Cian McPhillips as a contender for World Athletics Championship glory on Saturday after his sublime semi-final run on Thursday.
It was an unusual race, with the field speeding up as it progressed, something that O’Sullivan thought might have played into McPhillips’ hands:
A phenomenal run. In the negative split, he ran faster for his second lap than his first in that 800m, which is very, very unusual.
It looks like that’s the style of racing he needs to have so, hopefully, the final will be similar.
After his run in the heats, Rob Heffernan had compared him to 2000 Olympic champion Nils Schumann of Germany. Now, he said that McPhillips could yet claim a gold of his own on Saturday.
“He’s after upgrading from the German I said he was,” Heffernan said.
“He was so composed, he has so many ingredients that make a champion. He’s surpassed Mark English’s career in one run…the first Irish athlete ever to make a world final, and he broke the Irish record. It looks as if there’s more there!
“I’m so excited. I just hope that he comes right back down and he goes into the final and he gives us a performance like that again. He could end up being world champion, he could end up being sixth. But it’s already amazing for the country.”
A superb day for Cian McPhillips, and the highlight of these championships thus far for Ireland. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is that more could be yet to come.
Mark English was the first of the Team Ireland duo to run, as he went in the stacked first semi-final.
In fifth place entering the final lap, English would storm to the lead down the back straight as he pushed powerfully past heavily-favoured Canadian Marco Arop.
Arop would re-pass English on the home straight, and the Irishman was also overtaken by Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati. Ultimately, English’s time of 45.47 in third was not enough to progress to the final as a fastest non-qualifier.
However, Ireland fans can dare to dream of an unexpected medal in the 800m, as Cian McPhillips announces his arrival on the world stage.
A star is born in spectacular fashion in Tokyo.
SEE ALSO: Sonia O’Sullivan Feels Irish Runner Made Big Error In 1500m World Championship Final
