[Leica] IMGs: Liffey Swim 2019

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Brave souls! I suppose a tot of Jameson would be waiting at the finish.

I thing this one captures the essence of it all:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Sport/Liffey+Swim/LS2019W+467.jpg.html

Cheers
Jayanand

On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 4:55 AM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:

> Here are some images from the Liffey Swim - a 2.2 kilometre race that
> for the past 100 years has made its way down the river Liffey as it
> passes through the centre of Dublin on its way to the Irish Sea. As the
> river is not exactly the cleanest place to swim, although it is the most
> iconic, the races are held when the tide is high, and thus pollution is
> minimised. An old joke goes "How many prizes are there in the Liffey
> Swim? First Prize, Second Prize, and everybody in the race gets the Turd
> Prize".
>
> There are two separate races for men and women as the races are
> handicaps and can become a bit of a melee passing under the twelve
> bridges on the course. With the handicapping system, the slowest go
> first, and the fastest last, so the aim is to have all the swimmers
> arriving at the finish line at the Customs House together. While such a
> scenario never actually happens, this can create a problem going under
> those bridges where the span is made up of narrow and low arches. Legs
> and arms trash in the competitive frenzy. Goggles and swim hats can be
> kicked off in the scrum, and it's not unheard of to hear of displaced
> dentures sinking to the bottom.
>
> While I did triathlons myself back in the '80s which involved long sea
> swims, I have never done the Liffey Swim, but as a 70 year old finished
> third at the weekend, maybe there's still time :-) I haven't even been
> spectating at the Swim for fifty years as the last time I saw it was in
> the summer of '69 when I was working in Webbs bookshop on the quays, so
> my knowledge of its photographic vantage points was limited. As I had
> put my Pentax adapter in a safe place I couldn't use the 200mm lens and
> had to use my Sonnar 55mm f1.8 to get max sharpness.
>
> Here are some images from the day. Click on The Liffey Swim in this
> album http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Sport/
>
> Douglas
>
> who found the Pentax adapter almost as soon as I got home...
>
>
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