A triathlon festival at Chomondeley Castle has been hailed a success by competitors – including BBC TV presenter Louise Minchin.

The BBC Breakfast presenter was part of just one of 30 adult mixed relay teams who completed a 250m swim, 5km cycle and 1.5km run, finishing fourth.

The GB Age-Group triathlete said: “My team-mates were absolutely amazing. I’m so chuffed – I left them a bit of work to do after my swim, but it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it.

“I’d love to come back and bring my team to another Castle Triathlon Series mixed relay. We need to start rolling mixed relay racing out.”

Over the course of the weekend, 1,500 athletes swam, ran and cycled their way around the castle estate, with spectators cheering them on.

The top event was The Gaunlet, which saw George Goodwin fly around the course (1.9km swim/ 96km bike/21km run) in 4hr 4min 07sec to set a new course record in his first half-iron distance race.

He said: “It was a hard course, a tough course, but really good.

“I’ve been training really hard and it’s fantastic to set a new course record.”

In second place was Aichlinn O’Reilly (04:08:43) with Tony Cullen (04:21:30) third, while Mel Sykes won the women’s race in 05:13:32 with Lara Smith second (05:19:02) and Lindy-Lee Folscher (05:25:31) third.

The Olympic Distance Race (1.5km/ 44km/10km) saw elite triathlete and Castle Triathlon Series regular Hannah Drewett retain the title finishing in 02:15:40 while Jonathan Dudley was the first man home in 02:04:21.

Drewett said: “I’m so happy – I felt much better than I did last week when I raced a 70.3 in Staffordshire, and I’m thrilled to come back to Cholmondeley and win again.”

The other podium places for the men were Tim Lynch (02:08:51) in second and Steven Sims (02:09:30) in third, while Vicky Johnston was second in the women’s event (02:19:43) with Amy Ogden (02:31:15) third.

Next up was the Junior Triathlon which saw more than 450 youngsters taking part in a range of individual and mixed relay races.

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award winner Bailey Matthews returned to Cholmondeley Castle to compete in his first-ever
un-aided triathlon in the 11-12 wave, completing the 300m swim, 8km cycle and 4km run in an impressive 01:13:48.

A spokesperson for the event said: “Right at the heart of the triathlon weekend was a sense of athletes coming together in support of charities, including the national charity partner Macmillan Cancer Support, who hosted an energetic cheer point and were on hand to award triathletes their medals as they crossed the finish line.

“Local charity the Neuromuscular Centre was instrumental in providing volunteers and the event supports the important work they do to help the cause.”

Registration is now open for the 2018 event, which will take place on Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24, via the website www.castletriathlonseries.co.uk