THE Ironman UK event made its way through Chorley yesterday.

For the third year in a row Bolton was the principle host of the race, which is a tougher version of a triathlon and incredibly includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride and a 26.2-mile marathon.

But the swimming took place at Leigh’s Pennington Flash and the 112-miles cycle route moved into East Lancashire via Chorley and Wheelton on the A674 before returning to Rivington along the A675.

The marathon ended in Bolton town centre and the winner of the event was Aaron Farlow, who travelled from Australia to compete and finished the course in eight hours, 24 minutes and 31 seconds.

That was a new course record and an improvement of almost 16 minutes on last year’s winning time.

Frenchman Romain Guillaume was second in eight hours, 41 minutes and 23 seconds.

Kristen Moeller broke the women’s course record to win the female event in nine hours, 19 minutes and four seconds.

Bolton is set to host the race again next year, with the 2012 event pencilled in to take place on July 22.

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