All the 4.30am wake-up times for training paid off for 16-year-old Jessica Purcell on Saturday as she finished first in the women’s event of the Liffey Swim in Dublin.
Now running for more than a century, the Dublin City Liffey Swim starts at Rory O’More Bridge near the Guinness brewery’s Liffey-facing gate and ends at North Wall Quay, before the Custom House.
Passing under 11 bridges along the route, Purcell finished the swim in just 30 minutes.
It was an “amazing feeling”, she told The Irish Times afterwards.
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“I swim with Aer Lingus swimming club. We train nine times a week. We wake up at 4.30am for some of them,” she said.
“I didn’t think I’d win, since I was the last person off,” Purcell, who is from Co Dublin, said.
Last year, she came seventh in the race. She was delighted to have finished first this time, she said.
As the sun shone down in the city centre, Purcell’s mother and best friend waited for her at the finish.
Asked how she might celebrate her win, she said, laughing: “Maybe takeout tonight.”
She was speaking to The Irish Times from the prize ceremony at Custom House Quay after the race, where Paul Mulvehill, who won the men’s race, was also celebrating.
“I’m in shock,” he said.
“I started swimming about 10 years ago, so I’d be fairly new to open-sea swimming,” he said, estimating that he had done the Liffey Swim “six or seven times now” but never been close to first.
“The first race I ever did I was taken out of the water because I was too slow. But then I got some coaching from Tony Morris, who was amazing,” he said.
Mulvehill hadn’t even realised he was going to win, as he “just put the head down” during the swim.
It was only after, “when I started getting phone calls from people,” that he realised.
His family were “delighted” for him, and he was planning to celebrate by “going for a few pints”.
“We’ll go to Mulligans on Poolbeg Street for a few. That’s the tradition here after the race,” he said.
The race was one of two due to take place this month, after Swim Ireland and Leinster Open Sea (LOS) made rival bids to run the event.
LOS, a voluntary not-for-profit organisation, which has operated both events for many years, has accused Irish swimming’s governing body of trying to wrest control of sea swimming events due to the increasing popularity of the sport.
Swim Ireland said the relationship between it and LOS “broke down due to governance and other concerns” and Swim Ireland had “made the difficult decision not to recognise or affiliate the Leinster Open Sea club for the current season”.
The organisations had been in a mediation process relating to disputes over the constitution of LOS, Swim Ireland’s affiliation process and disagreements in relation to insurance cover provided by Swim Ireland for races.
However, with no resolution in sight, Swim Ireland organised its event, while Leinster Open Sea, has arranged its Liffey Swim to take place on Saturday, September 21st.
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