Four friends are celebrating after becoming the fastest all-female team to finish the Snowdonia Charity Triathlon.

Twins Anna and Katie Stewart, Hannah Fell and Jo Sutcliffe cycled 40 miles, climbed Snowdon and completed a 2.5-mile canoe ride around Lake Padarn – all within seven hours.

They were 80 minutes ahead of the next female team.

Competing under the name ‘Let Us Win And We’ll Get The Drinks In’, the quartet managed to raise more than £5,000 for Regain, a charity which supports people who have suffered serious spinal cord injuries during sporting events.

Anna said: “Overall we came ninth out of 49 teams, most of which were male teams, whose pride took a bit of a battering.

“We were praised by marshals and other competitors for sticking together as a team so well – which might sound easy, but trying to run or cycle at someone else’s pace is no easy task. Needless to say we worked really hard from start to finish.”

There were some hitches along the way, however – one of the bike chains came off in the first 30 minutes, Anna lost her footing on Snowdon and fell down a steep hill and there were a few steering issues with the canoe.

Anna said: “We completed the challenge in six hours, 59 minutes and 30 seconds – we were so happy.”

The women had to fit their training around their jobs – Anna and her sister work for the Centre of Crisis Psychology, at Broughton Hall Business Park, while Hannah is manager of the business park. Jo works for Sutcliffe Construction at Hellifield.