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The price the athlete has to pay? (7,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

running costs

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'the' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'price the athlete has to pay?' is the wordplay.
'price the athlete' becomes 'runnings' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'has' is an insertion indicator.
'to pay?' becomes 'cost' (pay is a kind of cost).
'runnings' placed around 'cost' is 'RUNNING COSTS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for running costs that I've seen is " ready to keep going?".)

I've seen this clue in The Irish News.
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