Runner Mark English reveals how Sky Scholarship raised his spirits and profile

Battling around a running track twice can be a brutal, bruising and isolated business.

800m runner Mark English may have struggled with injuries at times over the last four years, but being lonely is not something he's had to worry too much about thanks to Sky.

The 24-year-old from Ireland reveals how connections with the Sky Sports Scholarship has helped to shape his career.

The things that stand out during my Scholarship are all the relationships I've made.

Especially with my mentor Darren Campbell and Scholar boss Tony Lester and how willing they have been to give advice and help me through my injuries.

It's also been amazing meeting all the other Scholars and following their journeys and seeing how resilient they have been and dealing with their competitions.

There was also the Sky Academy Careers Lab where I met local school children in London. It felt good giving something back and telling them what I had learnt and hopefully giving them something they can use in their futures.

I told them my story and explained how I managed to balance my academics with sport and how it's possible to do both.

Athletics doesn't get as much exposure as other sports so it's been so amazing to get all that extra coverage. When I did my interviews on Sky Sports News, I did find a few more people recognising me and that's the impact of the Scholarship.

Lots more people were watching me and it's been a fantastic platform to mark you as an athlete.

Having the help from my mentor Darren was a key part of my development and he really helped me building up to Rio and while I was out there. I regularly spoke to him about racing, training and getting back after injury.

Just getting to the Olympics was the big challenge for me last year. I knew Darren got injured before the 2004 Athens Games and his message was to take it one step at a time and although I was injured I shouldn't be looking back.

I had to take it from that point and move forward and just make it to Brazil. It was so nice to know Darren was in my corner willing to help out in any way he could.

After making it to the Olympics and getting through my 800m heat, he was in the media zone after the race. He was there to congratulate me and it was great to see the joy in his face and saying how nice it was for me to come back after the injury and qualify for the semi-final.

That was a very cool moment and I'm very thankful for having him there for me.

I've been in touch with him recently building up to this season, getting advice on how he prepares for championships when he's feeling good, as opposed to last year when I was preparing feeling bad!

I'm looking to put some of that into practice. He's stressed the importance of focusing on the feel of things and not relying on external measures of progress like times.

That means rather than focus on a stopwatch, you focus on things like your technique in the first 200m or finding a rhythm when you're running and concentrate on the feeling of a rep as opposed to looking at the time of a rep.

That will hopefully help me get a better feel of where I'm at.

I also had the amazing opportunity of meeting Jess Ennis and Chris Hoy for lunch and I asked them all sorts of questions and learned a few things on performing at the highest level.

It was so interesting to hear from Jess how she dealt with being a poster girl for London 2012 and how she focused on controlling what she could control. You always read that's the right way to do things and I took great confidence in hearing how an Olympic champion like Jess put that theory into practice.

It was great speaking with Chris on how he peaked at the right time for championships. He emphasised the importance of rest in a training programme after all the hard work and making sure your body is ready to go.

I've learnt to be more resilient over my Scholarship and I've matured as a racer. I'm now able to read my opponents much better and I plan races better tactically.

My endurance has always been a challenge for me though. My speed is very good and I've run the second quickest time over 500m. But my ability to extend that over 800m requires a different level of fitness.

I've been working on that and the results will start to show if my training stays consistent. That's the big secret.

My priority now is to continue enjoying the day-to-day aspects of my training and to just always take it a step further from where I am. I want to keep moving forward.

Overall, the Scholarship has been fantastic and I have so many happy memories.

It's a fantastic way to help and improve as an athlete and it's provided me with so many resources.

The financial help allowed me to train in South Africa, America and throughout Europe. I've been able to use altitude tents and I've had access to my mentors.

I've also had plenty of exposure from Sky Academy and doing all the different interviews on TV and with the blogs. I feel very privileged to have been a Scholar and I would recommend it to anybody.