It’s time to get your Santa Dash suit down from the attic and dust it off as Isle of Man Bank has announced the date of this year’s charity fun event. The 2011 sprint through the streets of Douglas, supported by 3FM, will take place on Tuesday December 20th starting at 12.30pm from the Bank’s Athol Street premises. Around 100 Santas will be dashing down Prospect Hill and then into Victoria Street, along Loch Promenade, up Church Road and along Finch Road to a finish at the entrance to the South Douglas Old Friends Association where a welcome cup of tea or coffee will be on offer. Isle of Man Bank is again putting up ?2,700 in prize money with cheques for ?300, ?200 and ?100 going to the first three finishers, while the first lady Santa will also pocket a cheque for ?100. Further prizes of ?100 go to the best dressed male and female with a further ?1,800 being awarded for pre-determined, but secret, finishing positions. Event organiser, Isle of Man Bank’s Community Investment Manager John Lindon, said: ‘Last year we had a record entry of 123 Santas but, unfortunately, the icy conditions necessitated a postponement to January with the result that the final entry dropped to 94 with quite a few people being unavailable for the new date. ‘While we were more than happy with the outcome it would be nice to see this year’s entry going into three figures again and possibly approaching the official record of 114. There is always fierce competition to be the first Santa home – and possibly break the record – but the emphasis is on having fun and raising money for charity. Registration forms are now available in all our branches and these have to be returned by December 19th.’ As this is a charity fun event, rules and regulations are kept to a minimum but competitors must be 18 or over and running on behalf of a Manx registered charity. Full Santa costumes have to be worn and while competitors can raise as much money as possible by obtaining their own sponsorship, street collections on behalf of individual charities are not allowed. There is always a sprinkling of well known local athletes taking part, aiming to break the record of four minutes 28 seconds set by John Halligan in 2007. Record-breaking was out of the question last year as competitors faced a strong headwind along the finishing straight in Finch Road but several are known to be after the record this year. Winning charity last time was the Motor Neurone Disease Association (Isle of Man) in the form of Ryan Fairclough who won the Dash for the second successive year. Around 18 separate charities shared in the Bank’s prize money. ENDS