Eoin Murray reports: The 10th race in the Grand Prix series (4 mile), took place last Thursday night, 13th September on the track in Santry, in very blustery conditions that made racing difficult. Another good turn out of athletes ensured the competition in the race was not hindered by the conditions. Darren Reilly, Ernie Ramsey and Cian Delaney forged ahead from the start, this leading group of three set the pace with Darren running out a comfortable winner on the night, with Ernie second and Cian Delaney coming back from injury in third spot.
The winner in the handicap was Richard Connolly, followed in second by Aine McCann and in third place Shay Byrne.Ray Dunne is still top of the leaderboard with two races to go, 4 points ahead of Dermot Kelly. With only 8 races of the 12 in the series counting (your 4 worst scoring performances are excluded if you run all 12 races), the leaderboard is not as clear cut. There are still two races to score points, the Pat Bonass 10,000m (27th Sept on the track) and the Ahern 10 mile (6th October in Malahide), these are also club championship races.
Darren Reilly has a clear lead in the Green Jersey (fastest athlete) competition, with Ernie Ramsey in second place.
Thanks to the officials on the night, and to the Grand Prix committee for sponsoring the prizes. Thanks also to Frank in the bar for providing the after race refreshments.
The next race is Thursday 27th September, 10,000m on the track in Santry again at 8.00. The presentation will take place in the bar afterwards. The Grand Prix series presentation will take place on the night of 11th October in the bar (with some finger food) after the McDonald cup, it will be a 4 mile race on the track. Provisional dates for two other races, 10th November Horan cup and 1st December Irwin cup, both of which are cross country and will be in Santry Demesne.
| Position | Name | Time |
| 1 | Darren Reilly | 00:21:51 |
| 2 | Ernie Ramsey | 00:22:18 |
| 3 | Cian Delaney (guest) | 00:22:26 |
| 4 | Eoin Murray | 00:23:23 |
| 5 | Sean Doran | 00:23:38 |
| 6 | Dave Dunwoody | 00:23:43 |
| 7 | Clive Ahern | 00:23:50 |
| 8 | Dermot Kelly | 00:23:59 |
| 9 | Colm Hickey | 00:24:01 |
| 10 | Raymond Dunne | 00:24:11 |
| 11 | Philip Matthews (guest) | 00:24:34 |
| 12 | Michael McSwigan (guest) | 00:24:34 |
| 13 | Richard Case | 00:24:43 |
| 14 | Philip O’Doherty | 00:25:17 |
| 15 | Tom Monks (guest) | 00:26:02 |
| 16 | Kevin Dowling | 00:26:35 |
| 17 | Declan Murray | 00:26:48 |
| 18 | Colm Breen | 00:26:53 |
| 19 | Bernie Byrne | 00:27:09 |
| 20 | Pat Devitt jnr | 00:27:19 |
| 21 | Pat Devitt | 00:27:41 |
| 22 | Pat Healy | 00:28:08 |
| 23 | Frank Devitt | 00:28:29 |
| 24 | Richard Connolly | 00:28:31 |
| 25 | Shay Byrne | 00:28:32 |
| 26 | Pat O’Rourke | 00:28:51 |
| 27 | Emma Dunne | 00:29:10 |
| 28 | Aine McCann | 00:29:32 |
| 29 | Martin Cavanagh | 00:30:20 |
| 30 | Padraig Murray | 00:30:40 |
| 31 | Mary Purdue-Smyth | 00:30:46 |
| 32 | Fiona Hayes | 00:30:50 |
| 33 | Dave Brady | 00:31:15 |