More than 500 swimmers braved cold waters in Dublin's city centre on Saturday for the 101st Liffey Swim.
The race in the river running through the capital took place this afternoon, with 504 swimmers signed up for the 1,700-metre course despite it being announced just two weeks ago.
Today was the first time in the event’s history that swimmers swam upriver, travelling along the northside of the quays from the Three Arena.
Geoff Clancy was the second man to finish the race, and said he was over the moon despite being exhausted.
“I had two criteria – all I wanted to do was finish and not come last. Far exceeded it,” he said.
Organisers on Saturday were “delighted” with the event’s turnout, after it was skipped last year due to the Covid pandemic.
The city swim this year was held on the latest date that it has ever taken place.
Two participants, Eimear and Valerie from the Piranha swimming club in Portarlington, told Newstalk radio that they had spent the last year building up to the dip.
“Oh it went great. We’re lucky enough – we live beside a lake, so we had been cold water swimming for the last year with the pools closed and everything, so we were fully acclimatised and it was absolutely gorgeous,” one said.
“There was a lot of debris in the water, which we didn’t really expect... a lot of leaves... but it was fine. Just the only thing I think that freaked us out beforehand was somebody said ‘did you see that seal’ – we were like ‘no, don’t want to hear about it’,” she laughed.
