SATURDAY saw a team of seven athletes from the Ayrodynamic Triathlon Club take part in the Loch Tay Sprint Triathlon with around 400 others.

The race took the format of a 750m swim starting at Taymouth Marina on the shores of Loch Tay and was dominated by breathtaking views of Ben Lawers and surrounding landscape. On exiting the swim the athletes then completed a 20km cycle on undulating roads with a final 5km run in the grounds of Taymouth Castle, including a sharp climb in the middle.

The swim conditions were challenging to say the least and the athletes found themselves being beaten by waves from every angle. A windy cycle and a challenging hilly run course made for an interesting race. Alan Hiddleston of Kilwinning, was the first Ayro to finish in 1:19 to take 11th senior male (of 72) and 20th male overall (of 149).

Troon's Lyndsey Blair, finished in 1:29 in 14th senior female and 17th female of 130 overall. Brian McKeating raced well to finish in 1.20 (fifth super veteran) as did Alastair Ness 1.21. Alice Vernon had a brilliant race in her first sprint distance triathlon crossing the line 1:31 and 28th female. Tom Reid used his skills to tackle the waves with a fast swim time and went to on to complete the race in 1:32, narrowly missing the podium in the vintage category in fourth place with Gordon McBain not too far behind in 1:40.

On Sunday Kilmarnock's David Auchie and Mauchline's Darren Nicol raced in the Inverclyde Sprint Distance Triathlon based at Gourock Outdoor Pool. With a variant on the usual sprint distance races, the distances for this race were a half mile swim , 10 mile bike and a 5km run. David took first Super Veteran and fifth overall in 56.48. Darren Nicol finished his race with an impressive 5km run time of 18:44 giving him an overall time of 1:03 and 19th overall.