Frank O’Mara (born 1960 in Limerick) is a former Irish runner. A three-time Olympian, he was twice World Indoor Champion in the 3000m. O’Mara has post-graduate degrees from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and had a successful career in the wireless industry.

Early life

O’Mara began his athletics career at age 10, finishing 3rd in the All-Ireland 400m. He attended JFK primary school and St. Munchins College, where he played rugby. O’Mara won the Irish schools 1500m in a championship record of 3:58.2.Mulqueen, Charlie
“O’Mara Shatters Another Record,”
‘‘Limerick Leader’’. June 13, 1977. His victory that day led St. Munchin's to win the team title.

College Athletics

O’Mara received a scholarship to the University of Arkansas, where he studied engineering. While there, he ran 3:40.5 in Houston, TX in 1983 to become only the third Irishman to ever win the NCAA 1500m. That same year, he was on the first University of Arkansas team to win a Championship of America title at the Penn Relays, where he anchored the distance medley relay. He also anchored the 4 × 1500 m relay team to victory and was named the Penn Relays’ most valuable track performer. That summer he ran 3:52.50 at the Cork City Sports and was a semi-finalist at the inaugural world championships in Helsinki. In 1997, he was inducted into the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor.

Athletics career

Primarily a miler early on, O’Mara set a personal best in 1985 for the 1500m, finishing second at the Ivo Van Dame Invitational with a time of 3:34.02. Three weeks later, he won the Fifth Avenue Mile in an impressive 3:52.28.Yannis, Alex

‘’New York Times’’. September 29, 1985. He set his personal best for the mile when finishing 4th in the 1986 Grand prix final in Rome with a time of 3:51.06. He finished 8th at the European Championship in Stuttgart in the 1500m race won by

Steve Cram Stephen Cram, (born 14 October 1960) is a British retired track and field athlete. Along with fellow Britons Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, he was one of the world's dominant middle distance runners during the 1980s. Nicknamed "The Jarrow Arr ...

ahead of

Sebastian Coe Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, (born 29 September 1956), often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British politician and former track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500 metres gold medal ...

.1986 European Championships Stuttgart 1500m
/ref> Also that summer, he was a member of the Irish quartet of Coghlan, O’Sullivan and Flynn who broke the World 4 x 1 Mile record, becoming the first team to break 16 minutes, setting a new mark of 15:49.08.Relay Record Broken
/ref> In 1987, O’Mara broke the Irish record for 5,000m, finishing third place at the Bislett Games in Oslo.1987 Bislett Games
/ref> His time of 13:13.02 stood as the national record for 11 years. A finalist at the 1987 World Championship in Rome, he placed 9th behind the winner

Saïd Aouita Saïd Aouita ( ar, سعيد عويطة; born November 2, 1959) is a former Moroccan track and field athlete. He is the only athlete in history to have won a medal in each of the 800 meters and 5000 meters at the Olympic games. He won the 5000 mete ...

. He competed in three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, finishing 4th in the preliminary rounds of the 1500m at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and fourth in his heat of the 5000m at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, narrowly missing the next round. the Barcelona Olympics O’Mara's two major victories in the 3000m happened during World Indoor Championships. At Indianapolis in 1987, he won a tactical race in 8:03.32, beating fellow countryman Paul Donovan, who placed second. In 1989, he failed to defend his title at Budapest, finishing 5th behind

. That same year, he edged out close friend Marcus O’Sullivan to win the US Indoor Championships at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

.1989 USA Indoor Championships
/ref> But in 1991, he reclaimed his title with a dominating performance in Seville. Leading at the bell, he easily pulled away from Hammou Boutayeb in a championship record of 7:41.14, which was the third fastest time ever run.Irish National Hall of Fame
/ref> On five occasions, O’Mara was Irish national champion,Irish National Champion
/ref> and in 2015 he was inducted into the Irish Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.

Business career

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, he served as an assistant coach for the University of Arkansas and was on the coaching staff when Arkansas won its first NCAA Triple Crown in 1985. He continued his education and received an MBA and a JD. He was admitted to the Arkansas Bar in 1993. He was an RTE track & field commentator from 1995 to 2000, during which he covered the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics. He began his business career as lawyer for Alltel Wireless in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1996. He held various executive roles at Alltel, including EVP of Human Resources and EVP of Customer Service. However, his tenure as Chief Marketing Officer was most notable. During that period, Alltel changed its logoAlltell Unveils New Spokesman
/ref> and rebranded over 800 retail locations and 3,000 agent locations, launched a ground breaking product called My CircleAlltell Launches My Circle
/ref> and implemented a national, award-winning advertising campaign featuring the rival company's sales guys.“Chad and the Sales Guys,”
‘’2008 Effie Awards’’. In January 2009, Verizon purchased Alltel for $28.1 billion.CBS News 9 January 2009
/ref> O’Mara was named CEO of Allied Wireless, a subsidiary of Atlantic Tele Network (ATW) in September 2009.Atlantic Tele Network Appoints O’Mara
/ref> Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) bought former Alltel markets from Verizon.ATN Completes Acquisition
/ref> ATN also bought the Alltel brand, enabling Allied to operate as Alltel in the acquired markets.Alltel lives as Allied
/ref> O’Mara built a team of largely former Alltel colleagues, who successfully completed major systems, network, and customer support conversions. In 2013, ATN sold Allied Wireless to AT&T.Seaman, Jessica
“AT&T to Buy Wireless Business”
‘‘Arkansas Democrat Gazette’’. January 23, 2013. During his tenure as CEO, O’Mara was a member of the executive committee of the board of CTIA (the wireless trade association).
/ref>

Personal Bests

Achievements

References

External links

St Munchin's College St. Munchin's College is a second-level education college located in Corbally, Limerick, Ireland. The school was founded in 1796. It is a Diocesan CollegeDiocese of Limerick > Education > Post Primary or minor seminary. College Crest The colle ...

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www.awcc.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Omara, Frank 1960 births Living people Sportspeople from Limerick (city) Irish male middle-distance runners Irish male long-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Ireland University of Arkansas people Arkansas Razorbacks men's track and field athletes People educated at St Munchin's College World Athletics Championships athletes for Ireland Arkansas Razorbacks track and field coaches Arkansas Razorbacks cross country coaches World Athletics Indoor Championships winners