The organisers of the biannual Dartington Duathlon held the first South Hams Sprint Triathlon at Blackpool Sands beach on Sunday, June 7, in near-perfect conditions.

Nearly 150 competitors took to the start line for the first leg, a 750m swim across the bay and back.

Steve Ferguson from Plymouth was first out of the water in 12 minutes dead, which included a tough 100m run up the beach.

After less than one minute in the transition area he was onto his bike for the tough climb up to Strete, followed by the descent to Slapton, then on to Stokenham.

Steve also produced the fastest bike split of the day. His time of 36:10 for the hilly 20k bike course gave him a comfortable lead going into the 5k run, which he completed in just over 20 minutes, to win the event in 1:09:52, nearly three minutes ahead of second-placed Jamie Allen.

Scott Watkins from Totnes, one of 12 Torbay Tri Club members taking part, finished third.

Andrew Longthorpe, also of Torbay Tri Club, was second in the vets' competition.

In the women's competition Vikki Thompson was first woman out of the water, and ­second person, in an extremely fast time of 13:10. But eventual winner Karen Watkins was less than two minutes behind. Karen, a very strong cyclist, then posted easily the fastest bike split of the day of 39:41. Her run split of 23:43 was enough to give her the win, although early leader Vikki did manage to close Karen down a bit, posting the fastest run split of the day of 22:09 on her way to second place in 1:23:21.

Petra Vymetalova was third in 1:25:29, while 43-year-old Karen Watkins from Teignmouth was also the first woman veteran.

Lucy Goldsmith and Katharina Roberts of Torbay Tri Club ­finished seventh woman and eighth vet respectively.

The organisers plan to run the event again in early June next year. Their next event is the Dartington Duathlon on Sunday, October 18. See http://www.dartington">www.dartington duathlon.co.uk for details.

Results: first man Steve Ferguson (1:09:52); first vet Ken Holder (1:16:06); first junior Ross Clarke (1:16:54); first vet 50-plus Jason Mann (1:19:34); first woman Karen Watkins (1:20:41); first woman vet Sally Myatt (1:39:22); first woman vet 50-plus Sandra Drink (1:41:39); first junior woman Phoebe Lloyd Evans (1:32:23); first team Crathorne Hyde Wilkins, an all-female team (1:40:22).