Another perfectly executed 800m by Mark English provided the ideal tune-up for the World Athletics Championships which begin in Tokyo on Saturday.

Competing at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Beijing on Sunday, the last competition stop for athletes on route to Japan, English cruised to victory in 1:44.67, a meeting record and his eighth sub-1:45 this season.

Sitting in third coming into the homestretch, English kicked past Kenya’s Wycliffe Kinyanal and Belgium’s Peter Sisk in the last 50m, running well within himself. Pablo Sanchez-Valladares also closed fast to take second in 1:44.79, Kinyanal fading to third in 1:44.86.

Tokyo will be the 32-year-old Donegal athlete’s seventh successive World Championships, and the 800m has never been stronger. For the first time ever, 15 men have broken 1:43 in the same season, led by Kenya’s Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi (1:41.44).

Still English has been making significant strides of his own, breaking his Irish 800m record three times – taking it from 1:44.53 to 1:43.37.

Last month, he also won his 10th Irish outdoor title, to sit alongside his nine indoor titles, when beating Cian McPhillips into second place.

English will now join the Irish holding camp in Hong Kong ahead of Tokyo, where his 800m heat is set for Tuesday, September 16th.

McPhillips will join him in the heats after running 1:44.19 in July, second only to English on the Irish all-time list.

Meanwhile at the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, Nick Griggs produced a storming run to nail fourth place, the 20-year-old from Tyrone clocking 3:49 on the partly downhill course in the heart of the Manhattan.

Victory went to Yared Nuguse, the Olympic 1,500m bronze medallist from the US, who clocked 3:48, but Griggs was right on his heels in the blanket finish, with Parker Woulfe and Drew Hunter from the US second and third, both also clocking 3:49.

Griggs fell short of qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo, his season delayed due to a serious knee infection picked up last December, but did run Irish under-23 records in the mile and 5,000m.