WARRINGTON'S very own men of iron have returned victorious from the world's ultimate sporting event with wads of cash for the town's favourite charity.

Fergus Wiseman, aged 36 from Appleton and Neil Harrison, aged 43 from Stockton Heath travelled to Austria last month to compete in the 24-hour Iron Man triathlon.

The event involves a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run, and seasoned athletes Fergus and Neil, who together formed the Warrington Triathlon Club, decided to take up the challenge to raise cash for St Rocco's Hospice.

And the pair are now back in the UK after completing the mammoth task of almost superhuman proportions.

Fergus completed the circuit in just 11 hours and 53 minutes beating his own target of 14 hours.

Neil managed the course in a similarly good time 14 hours and 13 minutes.

So far their efforts have raised a massive £3,280 for the hospice, a charity close to both their hearts.

On completion of the triathlon, both were awarded with their Iron Man finishers medals.

Fergus said: "The race got off to a good start when I completed the swim 10 minutes faster than expected, then we started on the cycle which we both completed ahead of our targets, at which point we started to worry that we may have gone too fast when we still had a marathon to run.

"I managed to get to 26km before I had to walk but at 31 km my legs were really hurting and I wanted to stop but I just kept telling myself that there was a lot of money riding on me finishing this race.

"It was 12 hours of the most hardest, unrelenting exercise I have ever taken part in but it was a very special moment and very emotional. The money raised for St Rocco's makes it all worthwhile."