The 10 mile club championships which was also the last race in the Grand Prix series, took place on Saturday afternoon around the grounds of Malahide Castle, in near perfect weather conditions. Another good turn out of athletes ensured it was the biggest field to compete for the Ahern Cup to date. 46 Athletes toed the line for the 49th running of the Ahern cup, with Maurice Ahern once again sponsoring the race which he has done since 1978.
The good weather and the opening of the new Avoca restaurant attracted lots of people, dogs and bikes to Malahide which made navigating the course a little bit trickier than usual, in particular running through the car park. Although the volume of people and cars did not stop a number of PB’s being recorded.
The mens race was won by Eoin Murray in 59.20 with Ger Kirwan 2nd in 59.46 and Mark Bermingham 3rd in 60.18. The Ladies race was won by Bernie Byrne (who had never run ten miles before) in 71.30, followed by Emma Dunne in 74.32 and in third place Sinead Duffy 74.59.
Thanks to the officials who gave up their Saturday afternoon to help out, and to Maurice and Pat Healy who earlier in the week, walked the course with the wheel to ensure we had an accurately measured 10 mile course. Thanks also to Martin Treacy for photographs.
The results in the handicap of this race and the overall Grand prix will be announced at the Grand Prix series presentation, which will take place on the night of 11th October in the bar (with some hot food). There will be a 4 mile track race at 8.00 for the McDonald cup for anyone that wants to compete before the presentation.
1 Eoin Murray 0:59:20
2 Gerard Kirwan 0:59:46
3 Mark Bermingham 1:00:18
4 Sean Doran 1:01:29
5 Conor Keane 1:01:35
6 Joe Phipps 1:01:41
7 Dave Dunwoody 1:01:53
8 Dermot Kelly 1:01:59
9 Raymond Dunne 1:02:09
10 Colm Hickey 1:03:02
11 Philip Matthews (guest) 1:06:28
12 Pat Timmons 1:08:14
13 Hans De Raeymaeker 1:08:15
14 Ivan Eustace 1:08:17
15 Liam Osbourne (guest) 1:08:55
16 Colm Breen 1:09:08
17 Kevin Dowling 1:09:39
18 Robert Scott (guest) 1:10:45
19 Richie Barr 1:10:56
20 Bernie Byrne 1:11:30
21 Shay Byrne 1:13:28
22 Emma Dunne 1:14:32
23 Pat O’Rourke 1:14:55
24 Sinead Duffy 1:14:59
25 Aimee Ahern 1:16:32
26 Pat Devitt 1:19:25
27 Derek Reilly 1:19:34
28 Eugene McCarrick 1:19:34
29 Terry Mee 1:19:41
30 John McCormack (guest) 1:21:59
31 Martin Cavanagh 1:22:34
32 Fiona Hayes 1:25:48
33 Padraig Murray 1:31:30
34 Declan Bagnall 1:38:20