ROSSENDALE Triathlon Club descended on the South Manchester Triathlon in force on Sunday.

This sprint triathlon consisted of a 400m pool swim, 21km bike route through the undulating Cheshire countryside and then a 6km run.

After training with the club for only a short period Amy Harrop and Melina Bolton chose the event as their first triathlon and both produced superb results.

Harrop had an overall time of two hours and two minutes while Bolton put in a great effort and got under the two-hour barrier to finish in an overall time of 1hr 53mins.

The ever-improving Lorraine Hopley picked up an age category win in 1hr 23mins, while Matt Holstead was Rossendale’s best finisher in 20th overall and fourth in his age category in 1hr 16mins.

Three members chose to do the race as a relay team – and ended up winning.

Alison Monks completed the swim in 7mins 29secs, Patrick Walkington produced a superb bike time of 39mins 14secs, and Graeme Courtney crossed the line in the 6km run in 27mins 43secs, as the trio claimed the relay title.

And Karen Taylor also had reason to celebrate, winning her age category in 1hr 36mins.

n It’s a been a busy time for Pendle Triathlon Club members.

Becky Barr completed the Sandman Sprint Triathlon in two hours and 27 minutes and Deborah Stevenson finished the Amphibian 5km swimming event in 2hrs 34secs.

At the Skipton Late Summer Tri Mark Burrows finished in 1hr 21mins 27secs and was followed by Ian Barnett in 2hrs 5mins 9secs and Sarah Bullock in 2hrs 13mins 30secs.

Mantas Varanavicius completed the Leeds Standard Distance Triathlon in 2hrs 40mins 33secs and Paul Emmott completed the Sandman Standard Distance event in 3hrs 5mins 32secs.