HELENSBURGH Amateur Athletics Club turned out five teams in the MidSummer West Highland Way Relay Race recently.

The race covers the second part of the West Highland Way with three runners sharing the distance from Tyndrum to Fort William.

Notable performances on the day include a very strong run from the record breaking Iain Dowcra. Taking on the final leg of the day from Kinlochleven to Fort William, Iain ran within himself to comfortably take the winning time of the day, 10 minutes ahead of second place.

Charlie Crooks benefited from recent speed work training to make light work of his 17 mile leg from Tyndrum to Glen Coe, finishing in fourth place having covered the distance in 1 hour 19 minutes.

Madeline Robinson performed well, despite having run a 44 mile ultra event the week before and put in a strong finish to bring her team home sixth overall. Other notable performances include Leo Johnstone who ran a steady race in his first competitive trail event, Gail Thomas who took ill yet still finished her 17 mile leg and Barry Queen who stood in at the last minute to make up a full team that had been affected by injury.

Overall the club had a very successful day with all five teams finishing and Joseph Palmer, Leo Johnstone and Iain Dowcra taking third place for the mixed team event. Closely followed by Michelle Heatherington, Barry Queen and Maddie Robinson in fourth place.

Triathlon Last month saw the Mixed Relay Scottish Championships being held in Strathclyde Park. The notoriously fast course is the same to that which the Brownlee brothers raced on at Glasgow 2014. Helensburgh were represented in the event by Stuart Cordner, Laura Johnstone and the husband and wife team of Phil and Maria Dye.

Triathlon relay is a relatively new addition to triathlon and requires all four team members to complete each of the three disciplines: open water swim, bike and run.

First to race for HAAC was Maria Dye who proved swift in all disciplines but particularly strong in the run where she claimed the ninth fastest time before handing over to Stuart. Stuart had a very competitive swim, coming out of the water with the fastest swim time of the team.

His swim effort didn’t appear to hinder either his bike or run performances as he performed equally well for both before handing over to Laura. Laura had a steady swim before attacking the bike course and notching up a distance personal best before finishing the run.

Phil headed into the swim with ease and came out of the water straight onto a strong bike course, showing power on all the inclines.

A recent calf injury niggled him during the run but didn’t deter him from a sprint finish that brought the HAAC team home in 13th position from a possible 32, a very respectable finish for a Scottish Championship event.