Liam O’Brien competed in the men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, qualifying from his heat for the semi-final before ultimately failing to qualify for the final.

A physical education graduate of Thomond College, Limerick, a member of Midleton AC and a full-time teacher at Midleton CBS, O’Brien was the first Irish athlete to compete in the steeplechase since 1972.

He was a national-class 800m-1,500m runner who became, as Dr Tom Hunt puts it, ‘a specialist by default.’ He had won six of what eventually became eleven national steeplechase titles by the time of Los Angeles.

He booked his passage with a fourth place finish in the AAA steeplechase final on 24 June 1984 in a time of 8:27.24 – beating both the Irish record and the Olympic qualifying standard in a single race.

In the first round at LA he qualified with reasonable comfort as the second fastest of the six athletes to advance on a fastest-time basis (8:31.89). In the semi-final, the early laps were extremely slow and O’Brien pushed the pace in an attempt to draw the sting from the fastest finishers. The intervention had little impact and when the sprint for home began he was unable to stay with the leaders.