Daniel Caulfield 1.46.65 
Darren Dinneen 1.46.88 |  Dave Matthews 1.47.87  James Nolan 1.46.83 |
 | Ireland`s 800m pool of talent grew in size this year with the breakthrough of two more sub 1.47 athletes in Daniel Caulfield and Darren Dinneen.Both were a surprise to many in their progress and were unlucky to not to achieve the A standard and a place in Sydney. Dave Matthews was our only representitive in Sydney but after a year of injury and just one track race to his name he struggled to impress in Sydney going out in the first round.He fought hard but it was simply asking too much of him to expect him to progress on his injury spoiled preparation James Nolan became national champion for the second time in 3 years but with his efforts focused more on 1500m his 800m progress suffered.He did compete at the European Cup with a second place and he went under 1.47 for the only time this year at the Nationals.
Harvard graduate Darren Dinneen was the recipient of a lot of coverage on this site and made huge inroads to smash his best this year.The Blarney man was seen on many of the tracks around Europe but his tough racing program did him no favours as he narrowly missed out on Sydney.He has now retired from athletics to take up a job with an investment bank in Boston and we wish him all the best in his future career |
Daniel Caulifield also just missed out on Sydney but was the fastest man in the land with his huge personal best and shall go into 2001 with the knolwedge that he has a realistic chance of a berth on the World Championship team for Canada.
Tony Lilley surprised many with his performance at the nationals as he broke 1.50 and booked himself on the plane to Chile for the World Junior Championships.The former 400m runner has been a revalation this year and narrowly missed out on a semi-final place in Chile.He is definately one for the future.Along with Tony, David Kelly and David Cambell gave domestic fans many good races in their quest for World Championship places but these juniors narrowly missed out.David Kelly is now on scholarship in UCD and has the European Juniors in July to look forward to.
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