There were two Irish athletes in action today at the World Championships in Beijing with both sending positive news back to Ireland.

Mark English qualified for his first semi-final in Beijing this morning despite finishing fifth in his heat in the 800m with a time of 1:46.69. 

English had to finish in the top three in order to qualify automatically or be one of the six fastest finishers behind those qualified. 

Having competed in the third of six heats, the UCD medical student had to wait for all of the other heats to finish before eventually learning that he finished 12th fastest of the 16 athletes that would go through.

The final is set to take place on Tuesday but English must first navigate his way through the semi-final, which takes place on Sunday at around 1.15pm.

English knows he must improve as only the top two from the three semi-finals along with the two fastest losers can go through to the final next week. 

Following the good news that English had qualified, Waterford man Thomas Barr lined up vying for his place in a Sunday semi-final of the 400m hurdle.

He raced in the fourth of five heats and finished third in the race with a time of 49.20 to qualify automatically for Sunday's race. 

Barr's semi-final takes place at around 11.40am on Sunday.

(All times mentioned are Irish time.)