Tom Monks wins grand prix winter series

Jan 22, 2010 [Stephen Byrne] The Clonliffe Grand Prix Winter Series Presentations took place in Morton Stadium last night after a 3,000 metre race on the track. The race took place at 8.00pm in driving rain but thankfully the earlier gales force winds had ease substantially. A field of 25 athletes braved the conditions with Ernie Ramsey taking the initiative from the start opening a gap on Niall Sherlock that he maintained until the final 100 metres when Niall crossed the line with a 3 second advantage.

Pos  Name  Time 1  Niall Sherlock  10.14 2  Ernie Ramsey  10.17 3  Mark Bermingham  10.35 4  Maurice McCrohan  10.48 5  Sean Honan  10.54 6  Eoin Murray  10.59 7  Paul Carolan  11.04 8  Colm Groome  11.13 9  Jeremy Chapman  11.15 10  Declan Murray  11.22 11  Robert   11.27 12  Liam Ashton  11.33 13  Eamon Taylor  11.39 14  Colm Doran  11.5 15  Noel Guiden  11.56 16  Colm Breen  12.6 17  Peter Murtagh  12.7 18  Sean Doran  12.21 19  Lorcan Chaney  12.21 20  John Fay   12.24 21  Pat Devitt  12.37 22  Shay Byrne  12.48 23  Paddy Tuite  13.5 24  Pat O’Rourke  13.5 25  Dave Brady  14.01

After the race and it was back to the clubhouse for the end of series presentation of prizes. This year the Grand Prix Series was split into a summer and a winter series with both containing a prologue and 7 rounds. The summer series consisted of mainly track and road races with the series title going to Conor Delaney. The winter series kicked off with a new 2 mile course starting up at the Gulliver Retail Park and finishing in Santry Demesne Park. The Ahern Cup 10 mile in Malahide Castle, the Walker Cup 4 mile on the newly resurfaced track, the Farren Cup in Santry Woods over a distance of 4 miles, the park was also to venue for the Irwin Cup Steeplechase, the Horan Cup and the O’Connor Cup.

Over the course of this years Grand Prix Winter Series we have had 5 different leaders, Pat O’Rourke, Nigel Brunton/Paddy Tuite, Ernie Ramsey and the leader going into the last race Trevor Wisdom.

The following presentations where made on the night.

Race One: Horan Cup September 19th Sponsored by Colm Brennan 1. Pat Bonass Horan Cup 2. Shay Byrne 3. Paddy Tuite
Fastest Athlete Nigel Brunton 20.53

Race Two: Club 10 Mile Championships October 3rd 1. Philip O’Doherty Gold Medal Plus Ahern Cup 2. Ernie Ramsey Silver Medal 3. Maurice McCrohan Bronze Medal

Ahern Cup 10 Mile October 3rd Grand Prix Sponsored by Maurice Ahern 1. Karen Kinsella 2. Stephen Byrne

Race Three: Walker Cup November 5th Sponsored Frazer Walker 1. Eugene McCarrick Walker Cup 2. Pat O’Rourke 3. Declan Murray Fastest Athlete Niall Sherlock

Presentation Birstall Running Club Donkey Back in April we had a guest club Birstall R.C. over from Leicester in the UK to take part in a Grand Prix 5,000m event. Before they left they presented this donkey to Clonliffe, its twin brother is over in Leicester and is presented by them to an athlete who overcome adversity or went the extra mile. This year we are presenting its twin brother to an athlete that went an extra quarter of a mile, an athlete that before the Walker Cup on the track here at Morton Stadium fell and suffered a minor calf tear and a serious ankle injury. Yet this athlete went on to complete the full 16 laps of the race and then went on to do a 17th lap. For this show of bravery we are presenting this award to Noel Guiden.

 

Race Four: Farren Cup November 14th Santry Demesne 6K Point to Point Sponsored By Richard Connolly Name Race Time Act Time Yellow Points 1. Stephen Byrne 2. Paul Carolan 3. Dermot Travelan

Race Five: O’Connor Cup November 21st 6K CC Race Sponsor John Bourke 1 Eoin Murray 2 Pat Devitt 3 Tom Monks

Fastest Athlete Philip O’Doherty

Grand Prix Winter Series

7- Declan Murray 7- Dermot Travelan 6. Trevor Wisdom 5. Pat O’Rourke 4. Ernie Ramsey 3. Stephen Byrne 2. Pat Devitt

Winner of the Behan & Associates Noel Guiden Snr. Memorial Cup and presented by Noel Guiden 1. Tom Monks

Fastest Athlete and winner of the Pat Linane Memorial Cup sponsored and presented by Fred Connolly. Ernie Ramsey

 

I would like to thank all our sponsors for their continued generosity, and their support is deeply appreciated. Noel Guiden, Frazer Walker, Dominic Brannigan, Maurice Ahern, Colm Brennan, John Bourke, Fred Connelly, Colm Doran, Tom Griffin Sports Therapy, Richard Connelly and Brother International.

To all the officials that helped out during the series without whom we could not have run the races.

To my collegues on the Grand Prix committee for the sterling work over the last year, Paddy Tuite, Dave Brennan, Paul Carolan, Tom Monks and Alan Worrall.

Grand Prix 2010 will be kicking off sometime in March/April, if anyone has any suggestions as to how to improve the Grand Prix or any races they would like to see in the Grand Prix going forward please let anyone of the Grand Prix committee know..

 

Finishing the presentations Club President Paddy Marley talked about the remarkable year the club had in 2009 and was delighted with the continued success of the Grand Prix. Thanking Noel Guiden, Paddy Tuite, Stephen Byrne and the rest of the committee for their hard work during the year.