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MOST public relations experts and sports agents probably cringe at times because pro athletes can tweet whenever and whatever they want.

“Don’t press send” might be the conventional wisdom, but on the other hand track and field fans can easily find out what athletes have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Literally.

“Just had 2 servings of beef Stew and am running in an hour. Lets see how this plays,” Ireland’s Ciaran O’Lionaird recently tweeted.

O’Lionaird of the Oregon Elite Track Club might not have the 2.6 million followers that Usain Bolt has, but the European Indoors 3000 metres bronze medalist has that badge of honor that is a verified Twitter account. For the record, the Leevale athlete has 8,700-plus followers and counting.

“I am not giving people what they want to hear, I am pretty much saying what I feel. What you see on what I am doing, is pretty much what I am doing and what I am feeling and you are not really getting any filters. That’s refreshing to some people and probably scares other people who are used to athletes giving the usual interviews and saying what they are being told to say. I am pretty much going to say what is on my mind,” O’Lionaird said recently of his social media presence and his approach to media in general.

Irish athlete Ciaran O’Lionaird’s career is back on track in 2013. Some highlights from @GoCiaran and his year so far:

FALLEN HERO: Tim Danielson is one of only five American high school milers to break the four-minute barrier. Danielson achieved the mark in 1966 with a time of 3:59.4 and was the second runner to do so, following in the footsteps of eventual Olympic medalist Jim Ryun who ran 3:59.0 to break the barrier. Ryun later ran 3:55.3 in high school.

Danielson never broke four minutes again and his athletic career faded away by 1971 after stops at BYU and San Diego State. The high school phenom was largely a footnote in American athletics until recently. Danielson was never famous, but is now notorious following charges that he murdered his third ex-wife after which he attempted to take his own life.

The New York Times recently chronicled the sordid tale of Danielson who is now on trial in California. According to the story entitled After the Mile, the former California high school runner was known to be reclusive and had no apparent criminal record. Danielson has now garnered the spotlight for all the wrong reasons — forty five years after he was considered one of the best young talents in American distance running.

TOP 40: Two Irish athletes made the Track and Field News indoor Top 40 list of US-born or collegiate performances for 2013. Dublin’s Anthony Lieghio of Arkansas ran 1:48.56 for 800 metres (ranked no. 40). Ferrybank AC athlete Shane Quinn (Providence College) recorded a personal best of 8:01.49 (ranked no. 30) in the 3000 metres. Ireland’s top collegian in the 2012 NCAA cross country meet, Raheny’s David Rooney of McNeese State has recently struggled with knee and achilles injuries, but is hoping for a return to racing during the outdoor collegiate season.

MO WHO?: As expected, Great Britain’s Mo Farah won the recent New Orleans Rock ‘n Roll Half-Marathon. But what happened after the race is what made big news.

Farah’s post-race interview on New Orleans TV station WDSU went viral because a New Orleans reporter had apparently not heard of the double Olympic champion and was also unaware that Farah had just completed a half-marathon and not the full distance. “Haven’t you run before?,” the hapless reporter asked. The interview went downhill from there, but Farah kept his composure and later came to the defense of LaTonya Norton when he tweeted: “Just wanna say to everyone being nasty to LaTonya Norton please stop!! She made a mistake like we all do!! She didn’t mean anything by it!”

By the way, Farah won the race in 1:00:59, edging Ethiopia’s Gebre Gebremariam, one second back in 1:01:00.

Scholarship trailblazer: Irish discus Olympian Cummin Clancy who attended Villanova University after competing in the 1948 London Olympics, passed away recently in Garden City, New York at age 90.

Clancy was a successful businessman and had a thriving insurance brokerage agency in Garden City after initially working for General Motors upon graduation from Villanova.

The Galway-born athlete was one of three original members of the “Irish Pipeline” of track athletes who attended Villanova on athletic scholarship. Clancy, John Joe Barry and Jimmy Reardon represented Ireland at the 1948 Olympics and were recruited after the Olympics by famed Villanova coach Jumbo Elliot.

Clancy was born on November 9, 1922, in the Oughterard and Glann area of County Galway and was educated at Glann National School. After training as a garda, Clancy’s athletic career blossomed while he represented Donore Harriers.

At Villanova, Clancy was the IC4A outdoor discus champion in 1951. His career best of 49.35 meters remains the fourth-highest discus mark in Villanova history.

Clancy is survived by his wife of 58 years, Maureen O’Grady, five children and numerous grandchildren.

Garden City resident Dennis Donnelly, long time village board liaison to the business community, said on the Garden City Patch web site: “Cummin (Clancy) was a dedicated family man, outstanding business leader and quintessential charitable icon. Garden City will miss him. He will always be known as a son of Ireland but he will also be remembered as a force for good in our village.”

BY THE NUMBERS:

1: No. 1 track athlete on Twitter with 2.6 million followers is Usain Bolt. Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones is the top US track athlete on Twitter with 330-000-plus followers, according to EightLane.org. Jones is also dissed for being the Anna Kournikova of track because despite her movie star looks, she has not lived up to the hype on the track. Whatever about Kournikova’s tennis exploits, Jones has found out the hard way that it is a tough crowd out there on Twitter.

20: February 20th. On this day, Ireland’s Eamon Coghlan set two world records: Open mile of 3.50.6 in 1981 and masters in 3:58.14 in 1994. (Source: BringBackMile.com). Coghlan lowered his open world record to 3:49.78 in 1983 — still good for second on the all-time list to Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:48.45.

41: The University of Arkansas now has 41 NCAA track and field titles. The 2013 indoor title is the first for the Razorbacks since 2006 and more of note, the first of head coach Chris Bucknam’s reign. Bucknam inherited the program from Mayo’s John McDonnell whose accomplishment of 40 national titles in 30-plus years is unlikely to be ever duplicated. McDonnell retired in 2008. According to the Arkansas Business publication, Bucknam earned a $35,406.25 bonus for the NCAA win (three months of salary under a deal which pays Bucknam $141,625 annually).

387: The number of Americans who have run sub-four minute miles. Shane Moskowitz of Oklahoma joined the club when he ran 3:59.48 at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas. Moskowitz was only the fourth Oklahoma State finisher in that race with teammates Patrick Casey (3:56.28), Thomas Farrell (3:58.20) and Kirubel Erassa (3:58.24) ahead of Moskowitz. (Source: Track and Field News).