IT was a phenomenally successful weekend for the three women from Evesham who make up Team Michelle in the London Triathlon event held at the Excel centre in the Docklands.

Michelle Dige, Michelle Parsons and Michelle Kimberley collectively known as 'Team Michelle' attempted an unprecedented clean sweep of the team events to be held on Saturday and Sunday at the UK's largest triathlon event. The team were sponsored by Purdey's Multivitamin Energy Drinks.

They started with the team super sprint race at 2pm on Saturday where all three Michelles had to complete a triathlon as individuals over a course of a 400m wetsuit swim, 10km bike and 2.5km run.

Their individual times were then aggregated to give an overall time. Kimberley and Dige not surprisingly exited the swim with the leaders and both consolidated their positions on the bike and ran well with Kimberley finishing fifth overall in a time of 41 minutes 43 seconds and Dige 21st in 45.14. Parsons conceding more than three minutes to her teammates on the swim tore through the field on the bike and run to finish 13th overall in a time of 43.27.

Those times were the three fastest recorded by female athletes in the race and so the first team title was secured.

With less than an hour to recover the three then got ready for the female sprint relay which started at 4pm. This time each would complete only one of the disciplines but over a longer distance.

Dige did the first leg, a 750m swim in the Victoria Dock. She left the water among the leaders in the male race which was run simultaneously in a time of approximately 10 minutes.

Parsons then took the timing strap, which served as the baton in this relay, and set off on a 20km bike around the dockland roads which serve the Excel centre. Keeping pace with the male leaders Parsons recorded a time of 37 minutes before passing the strap to Kimberley for the final discipline, the 5km run.

Kimberley ran a good race, staying in touch with the male leaders and recording a time of 20 minutes. The team's overall time of 1 hour 10 minutes and 24 seconds was only 34 seconds behind the male team winners and secured their second victory of the day.

The team then had to wait until 3.30pm on Sunday for the final event of the weekend, the Olympic Team relay. Again each would complete one leg of a triathlon but over twice the distance of Saturday's sprint relay.

Dige saw herself lining up against Olympic athletes and television celebrities for the 1500m dock swim. Olympic swimmer James Hickman led the swim from start to finish but Dige was not far behind and in front of former Olympic swimmer, now commentator, Adrian Moorhouse in a time of just over 20 minutes.

Next Parsons took the strap for the 40km bike section and on a windy course maintained the 45 second lead the team held over the second placed female team. Parsons completed the bike section in a little over 1 hour and 8 minutes and passed the strap to Kimberley for the final 10km run around the Excel centre and Victoria Dock.

As the temperature soared Kimberley kept her cool and maintained the team's position to record a time of just under 42 minutes for the run. The team's overall time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 55 seconds was 58 seconds ahead of the second placed female team.

The event was covered by BBC television and will be screened this Sunday on Grandstand.