Sep 30, 2010 [Stephen Byrne]
The Grand Prix Series took to the grass last Saturday in Santry Demesne. This year the participating athletes and officials were treated to excellent conditions with bright sunshine and excellent underfoot conditions. The race seen the athletes complete 4 x 1.5km laps on a taxing course.
The numbers competing were unfortunately down from 38 athletes last year to mere 15 athletes this year, the numbers bolstered by a number of juniors trying out for the Dublin Novices at the weekend.
The Horan Cup is one of Clonliffe`s oldest club races and was first competed for in 1908. The cup was presented to the club by Michael Horan during the 1907/08 season. The race was a 6 mile race, however, in recent years for health and safety reasons has thankfully become a 6k race. The cup is a superb piece of silver craftsmanship and would grace the trophy cabinet of any athlete.
First away on the staggered start was Trevor Wisdom followed by Pat O’Rourke a further minute behind. The last GP athlete to go was Ernie Ramsey in the company of a number of the junior athletes. Trevor Wisdom was the first to cross the line although not a GP member as a Clonliffe member he takes the Horan Cup with Philip O’Doherty 2th and Ian Guiden 3rd.
Trevor is the grandson of Arthur Wisdom who was a very distinguished member of the club for more than 60 years from the 1920s until his death. He served as Hon Treasurer of the club from 1931 to 1946.
Arthur’s brother George was also a long time member of the club and was on the 1925 All Ireland Cross Country winning team along with 3 members of the Walker family and captained by the legendary Tommy Burton. George finished 2nd behind Dan McAleese in the Horan Cup back in 1921.
The results of the race are as follows, actual times were available have been included.
Pos Name Act Time Yellow Points Green Points 1.Trevor Wisdom (GUEST) 00:28:08 2.Philip O’Doherty 00:22:26 30 4 3.Ian Guiden (GUEST) 00:28:48 4.Johnathon Bradley (GUEST) 00:28:48 5.Colm Doran 00:25:54 28 6.Paul Carolan 00:25:00 25 2 7.Paddy Tuite 00:25:17 20 1 8.Ernie Ramsey 00:22:11 19 5 9.Ronan Doyle (GUEST) 00:30:00 10.Pat O’Rourke 00:29:23 18 11.David Tracey (GUEST) 00:30:34 12.Colm Breen 00:27:10 12 17 13.Pat Devitt 00:28:13 16 14.David Dunwoody 00:23:46 15 3 15.Graham Mahon (GUEST) 00:32:19
The Leader-board with 2 races to go is very close with a number of athletes still in with a shout for the top honour. Hopefully the next couple of races will be better attended making it harder for the athletes at the top to gain a large number of points.
Grand Prix Leader-board after 11 events
Pos Name Best 10 Races 1 Colm Doran 169 11 2 Ernie Ramsey 165 10 3 Paddy Tuite 159 9 4 Philip O’Doherty 156 10 5 Colm Breen 145 10 6 Richard Barr 134 10 7 Pat O’Rourke 131 8 8 Sean Doran 119 9 9 Conor Delaney 114 7 10 Pat Devitt 114 9 11 Paul Carolan 104 6 12 Frank Devitt 91 7 13 Richard Connolly 85 6 14 Robert Beckett 85 6 15 Stephen Byrne 81 7 16 Declan Murray 75 5 17 Shay Byrne 72 6 18 David Dunwoody 70 4 19 Fergus Wheatley 66 4 20 Maurice McCrohan 63 5
In the battle for the green jersey for the most consistently fast finisher Ernie Ramsey leads Philip O’Doherty by 1 point with both having completed 10 races. In a distant 3rd place Conor Delaney has 15 points from 5 races.
