Thomas Chamney

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Thomas Chamney
Chamney at the 2006 NCAA Championships
Born	16 April 1984 (1984-04-16) (age 24)
Residence	Dublin, Ireland
Other names	The Chamdawg Chammers
Occupation	Middle Distance Runner

Thomas Chamney (born 16 April 1984) is an Irish runner who was born in Clonmel and brought up in Dublin. He specializes in the 800 metres event. Chamney runs for the Crusaders AC club whilst in Dublin and has been on an athletics scholarship at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana where he studied English from 1998-2003.

[edit] On the field accolades

In 2006, Chamney earned All-America honours at the NCAA Indoor Championships, picking up his first career citation with a sixth-place finish in the 800-metre run at the Randall Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas^[1]. Chamney repeated his performance that spring at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, California, again finishing sixth and picking up All-America honours^[2]. This winter, Chamney became a three-time All-American with his performance in the NCAA Indoor Championships^[3].

In international competition, Chamney has represented Ireland in the 800 metres at the European Athletics Championship in 2006^[4] and at the European Indoor Championship in 2007^[5]. Chamney is a former Irish U23 800m champion and was 5th in the 2005 European U23 Championship when he recorded a personal best time of 1:46.82^[6]. If he remains injury free it is likely that he will break the Irish Indoor record for 800m in the next year or two.

[edit] Off the field notoriety

Chamney developed a cult following on the internet amongst both track fans and non-fans when he began posting training journals on the popular college track and field site, TrackShark.com.

An English major at the University of Notre Dame, Chamney was able to use his literary talents and his unique charismatic personality to build a loyal fanbase of American readers who embraced the aggressively cocky yet often self-depricating sense of humor which "the Chamdawg" possessed^[7]. Chamney's entries were generally quite lengthy and were written in an Irish vernacular. Chamney wrote his journal entries from the point of view of what seems to be a fictional self-caricature: an over-competitive, swaggering, womanizing booze hound, all traits he picked up whilst completing his Life Skills apprenticeship with Eoin "Sully" Sullivan aka Chull-Dawg, who goes to great lengths to intimdate his opponents and antagonize a French Canadian teammate whom Chamney refers to as "Guy Fromage"^[8].

Chamney's last journal entry was written on February 23, 2006. In a 2007 interview with TrackShark.com, Chamney stated that he enjoyed writing because of the positive feedback and widespread praise that it drew from his fans. However, he discontinued the journals because he felt slighted by some of his Irish countrymen who accused him of exploiting the literary styles of some notable Irish columnists ^[9].

[edit] References