BRILLIANT sunshine brought the crowds out in their thousands lining Minehead Promenade in West Somerset, to watch a class field of British and international athletes begin what many describe as the hardest XTERRA course in the world.

For the first time in XTERRA GB history competitors got the swim conditions they wanted - flat water with no chop and certainly not the shore 'dump' that had greeted athletes in the two previous races.

The swim was followed by a 26k mountain bike ride and a 10k run.

Canadian star Mike Vine was the winner of the men's event. He crossed the line in 2:21:34, Alan Mansson, of Denmark, was second in 2:22:21 with last year's champion Royce Kortekaas, of Holland, showing the signs of a fall, happy to take out third in 2:26:19.

First Brit home was Chris Volley (4th) in 2:29:25 followed by Richard Hobson in 2:34:24, embodying the XTERRA spirit by carrying his young son over the winning line.

Caroline Wallace, of Scotland, was in top form, posting the fastest splits in each element of the women's division winning in a time of 3:02:16. Ruth Davies, of Wales, whose excellent bike leg brought her up to second place in 3:17:38, ahead of a tired but happy Stephanie MacLean in 3:30:10.

Local teams took out all of the placings in the Team Event which was won by the local Minehead Team made up of Ian Denley, Steve Pye and John Halls in a time of 3:01:31 with teams captained by Liz Singer and Dave Poole coming in second and third.

The XTERRA Mountain Bike Challenge was a hotly contested event with many excellent local riders coming from all over the Devon & Somerset area.

Competing over the full XTERRA mountain bike course the Challenge riders were the trail-blazers for the bigger event to follow, but the quality, speed and aggression shown by these athletes matched anything put up by the later riders in the multi-discipline event.

William Bjergfelt from Nailsea in North Somerset finally triumphed in a hard fought battle with local rising star Clifford Langdon from Minehead.