It has to be said that the Human Race team don't just know how to put on a good race, they also know how to order good weather, and for the entire Nokia Windsor Triathlon weekend the sun shone down on the two thousand plus competitors that took part in the 18th running of the event!

In the Elite race for the three disappointed Olympic hopefuls, Stannard, Whitcombe and Swallow, there was a lot of pride at stake and perhaps something to prove following their Olympic disappointment. Richard Stannard, who was left out of the team for the Madrid selection race led out the swim, but was closely followed by the World University Triathlon Champion, Harry Wiltshire, Dan Brook and Oliver Howton. The second pack which contained Wiltshire's training partner, the up and coming Pete Freedman and ex-swimmer James Loch, worked hard to chase down the front group and by T2 the two packs had become one. Richard Stannard, who was bitterly disappointed to miss the chance of trying for the Beijing team left the transition area like a man possessed and it would have taking a brave man to bet against him. Just over 32 minutes later, for the second year running, Stannard came home to take the victory by over 20 seconds. Pete Freedman, who had been tipped by his team mate, Wiltshire, before the race, came home in second place and Wiltshire rounded up the top three finishing in third spot.

The women's race hotted up when Andrea Whitcombe became a late entry on Friday evening and following her exclusion from the Beijing team - a two month long injury problem meant she was forced to pull out of the Madrid selection race - she without a doubt, wanted to prove that she is still a forced to be reckoned with. She most certainly achieved that and although over a minute down on Jodie Swallow, Sam Herridge (last year's winner) and Rebecca Milnes after the swim, she worked well with Jodie Stimpson and Rhian Roxburgh to catch the front pack and by T2, as in the men's race, the two packs had become one. Andrea showed no signs of the achilles injury that has plagued her for the last two months and she stormed out of T2 in the lead closely followed by Jodie Swallow. Jodie who has also had her fair share of health and injury problems over the last couple of years and was also disappointed not to make the Olympic team, looked strong too and was not going to let Andrea get off lightly. The two ran neck and neck until 400m to go, when Andrea dug deep into her years of running experience to out sprint Jodie in sight of the finish line. Last year's winner, Herridge, who led out the swim, knew she was up against tougher competition this year so was delighted to finish on the podium in third place.

In the Age Group event, as predicted in our weekend preview (mystic statto?), it was Edwina Carter (Optima Racing Team) who secured the ladies win, but only very late into the run, passing Jenny Shorrocks (Hillingdon Triathletes) for a narrow 35 second win. For the men, the winner from Ful-On-Tri was Euan Lees in 2:05:19. Euan previously finished second in 2006, and I'm sure will be thrilled to finally win here.

As always, there was a competitive sprint race run alongside the standard distance events, and the top three were:

Click here for a full set of elite and age group results. We will load local copies to our database, once the results have been finalised over the next day or so.

Deep in the Somerset countryside today Ironman 70.3 UK unfolded to provide a thrilling men's race, despite the absence through illness of the star attraction, Chris McCormack. All the major players were at the front during the swim section and last year's champion, Fraser Cartmell, showed that he was there to defend his title with the fastest swim spilt. Closely followed, and we mean closely, by Bryan Rhodes, Tom Room, Blair (yes, that's his brother) Cartmell, Luke Bell, Stephen Bayliss anD Scott Neyedli all within 30 seconds of the leader it was clear that this one was going to be interesting! Last year's defending women's champion, Julie Dibens was next out of the lake and she was nearly two minutes up on her closest rival, Bella Comerford, with the prospect of a serious foot race to come given Bella's recent series of wins from behind.

By the end of the first bike lap the men's lead was still in Cartmell's hands with a 50 second advantage over Bayliss while Dibens had extended her lead over Comerford to three minutes. By the time T2 came around, however, Bayliss had nosed ahead of Cartmell by a mere four seconds and Luke Bell was making his presence felt just 26 seconds behind. Dibens had added another minute to her lead and, as with every race she's been in this year, Comerford was going to have to do it all on the run.

After the first run lap Bayliss was holding his lead by a slender 20 seconds but Dibens was watching hers shrink as Comerford reduced the gap to three minutes and was obviously gaining. Just by how much was clear at the end of lap two because by then Bayliss and Cartmell were close enough that they could touch one another and Dibens' lead had evaporated to single digit seconds. The question was, for both races, could the leaders fight off the challengers or was their cause a lost one?

Fraser Cartmell wasn't going to hand over his title easily and in the end it came down to who was going to be the strongest in the closing couple of hundred metres and the Scot prevailed. Luke Bell had a third grip on third place and with Bryan Rhodes abandoning the race after the bike it was Nick Saunders who came through for fourth with Joel Jameson in fifth.

Julie Dibens couldn't hold off the charging Bella Comerford who continued her great winning streak and ran in 5:15 ahead of Dibens and the surprise package in third place was 18-24 age grouper Sara Sig Moeller with Katharina Baldinger and Lindsay Smith filling out the top five positions.

So, another thriller from the race which is billed as the toughest on the 70.3 circuit and another all-Scottish result following on from last year's Ironman UK. Would anyone care to place bets on what will happen at Ironman UK in September??

Full results from Wimbleball can be found here

Overseas, there was more long-course action taking place with the Ironman 70.3 Kansas. Abigail Bayley finished sixth in the women's field, while Simon Lessing appears to be a DNF during the run section. McGlone and Lawn were a class apart in the ladies field, though McGlone had to work very hard to make up almost five minutes lost to the charging Kiwi on the bike to secure the win.

One Step Beyond Promotions hosted the third event in the Timex Series, at the Woodhall Spa Sprint Triathlon. Again, over 300 athletes raced in this popular series. It was a family affair at the head of race, as Tom Bishop (58:33) took the win ahead of brother David (1:01:22). In the ladies event, Emillie Verroken made it a 100% record in the series so far, though was made to work hard by the fast running Emma Dews, winner of our April Athlete of the Month award, who finished just two seconds later in 1:08:23. Full results here.

In Scotland, the Ayr Open Water Sprint organisers were very swift with their results. A clear winner by almost three minutes was Graham Scobie (PedalPower.org.uk/Endura RT) in 1:01:19, while the first lady was Alison Rowatt (Edinburgh Triathletes) who finished in 1:09:42.

Saturday saw the Making Waves Triathlon Challenge in Canvey Island, Essex. Another comfortable victory here, as Romain Buschino took the win in 54:09, over three minutes ahead of Dave Copland (Ipswich Tri Club). First lady was Natalie Bent (Trilarks) in 1:12:08. We have full results on site. Also on Saturday, one event we had missing from the calendar initially was the Brecon Triathlon. Johnathan Williams (Celtic Tri) blitzed his way to victory by over six minutes, while Ellie Jones (Pembs Tri) secured the ladies win. Full results here.