Again the standards were raised this year over the previous two with Mark Carroll and James Nolan setting new bests.Also the domestic scene was very competitive with ken Nason, Des English and Andrew Walker competing well.Conor Sweeney and Liam Reale excelled in the Junior ranks with Shane O'Shaugnessy also doing setting an impressive personal best.
Mark Carroll
3.34.91
James Nolan
3.36.30
Gareth Turnbull
3.39.02
Colm McClean
3.40.42
With James Nolan`s move to 1500m Ireland had another world class miler to boast about.With Mark Carroll`s failure to break the Irish mile and 1500m Nolan opted for the 1500m over the 800 in Sydney.Indeed it was a great sight to see Nolan beat Carroll over 1500m in Barcelona as he achieved the standard for Sydney.With silver over 1500m in the European Indoors Nolan must have been disappointed not to progress in Sydney but it was a long hard season and he is young enough to be around for Athens in 4 years.
As for Mark Carroll he had a great a year , he improved as the season went on but his only poor performance this year came in Sydney as the European Champion exited in the heats of the 5k.His early season form over the shorter events saw him finish the season 11th in the European ranking list over 1500 and 5th over 5k
Gareth Turnbull was fantastic in the early season with a 3 second personal best over the mile as he ran 3.57 and a strong performance in the European Indoors.This translated into a personal best of 3.39.02 over 1500m at the Loughborough International but injury ended his season early.
Colm McClean moved to Brendan Hackett`s training group and he has made good progress this year with a new best of 3.40.42 set in Barcelona.
Conor Sweeney followeed up last year`s strong run in the European Juniors to post a personal best of 3.44.41 and narrowly missed out on a semi-final place in Chile.Shane O`Shaughnessy was impressive with a new best of 3.48.74 with Liam Reale also dipping under 3.50. with 3.49.98.Liam made huge strides as he won the FISEC Games in a new FISEC record over 1500m Steeple before seting an impressive personal best of 9.09 over 3k Steeple to claim his place in the World Junior Championships in Chile where he performed credibly.
Des English was a revalation with his new best of 3.43.84 set in Germany.He has made huge progress this year which was a surprise to many under the guidence of Eddie McDonagh.He can look forward to 2001 as he has now broken into the top echelon of Irish miling.He was voted second most improved athlete of the year in the Irish Middle-Distance Athlete Poll
Niall Bruton came into this Olympic year looking to finish off his career on ahigh and was in fine form posting his fasted time in an opening race when he ran 3.42.88 in America early on in May.After some dissappointing results in Canada he was diagnosed with a liver aliment which ruined his season and cost him a chance to try and make the Olympic team.Ken Nason took the nationals in a tactical race over pre-race favourite Andrew Walker but it was Walker who finished of the top five in the rankings when he ran 3.42.18.
