THREE West Devon residents tried, tired and tried again by pushing their bodies to the limit while raising a fantastic sum of money.

Mervyn and Susie Rice from Bratton Clovelly and Jason Walker from Uffculme banded together to form the Tri Tri and Tri Again triathlon team in a bid to raise funds for Devon Air Ambulance.

Their challenge was to complete three Olympic distance triathlons as a team with Susie swimming 1500m in open water, Jason cycling 40km and Mervyn running 10km.

The team completed the Hayle and Plymouth triathlons during July and the start of August saw them complete the piece de la resistance in London.

On Saturday, August 9 the team travelled to the ExCeL Centre in London to complete their final triathlon.

Mervyn said: 'London was something else. There was a brilliant atmosphere and it was a really good experience.'

The team described taking part in the London Triathlon, which boasts more than 13,000 competitors taking part across two days of competition, as 'exhilarating'.

There were more than 400 teams taking part and Tri Tri and Tri Again team managed to achieve 154th place with a time of 2hrs 42mins and 14secs, beating their previous best time by a whopping 6 minutes.

Mervyn added: 'It's been fantastic, we've really enjoyed and our teamwork has been great.

'The fund-raising far exceeded our expectations with the final total in excess of £2,500.

'Once again, many thanks to everybody who has sponsored us.'