water polo dublin north dublin water polo

North Dublin and Majors. Two things that go hand in hand of late. As mentioned when young Mark Hanley won the Liffey swim last month, we have made a bit of a habit of winning these swims. Yesterday saw the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Swim and North Dublin had their sights set on another Major win.

Such hopes appeared dashed when our swimmers arrived and spotted their handicaps. 10 North Dublin swimmers were off on 16:30 and 2 were off at scratch (17 minutes). The official explanation was a "globalization of North Dublin's handicaps". Hardly fair but just like the Liffey Swim, one name was missed, Karl Wilkes.

Karl is of good stock of course. His father, Bimbo and brother, Gerard, have both won the Liffey. Karl himself has picked up a couple of races wins over the years but never a Major. Leaving at a handicap of 3:30 today he knew their was a chance, he just needed to keep a steady pace. Could North Dublin break the "system" again? Of course we could.
Karl swam a great race and managed to hold off a couple of chasers, including young Sean Nolan of Clontarf who was seen as Karl's nearest rival off a handicap of 4 minutes, in a very tight finish. 3 years in a row, North Dublin have had a winner in the Harbour (Frankie Chatham, Gavin Nolan and now Karl Wilkes). On top of that, we have had a winner in both of the Majors this season with Mark Hanley winning the Liffey and Karl winning the harbour.

Mick O'Kane also needed a big swim today to clinch Swimmer of the Year and he produced it. An incredible year for Mick topped with a reward for all his hard work. Bren Cope also managed a fastest time to almost give the club the clean sweep on the day.

So that's the Open Sea Swim season for 2019 done and dusted. All in all, North Dublin has won 11 trophies, including the two Majors, 7 fastest times and a number of Team prizes. What a season for the Club. Let's hope the Water Polo season brings as much success ☠☠☠☠