weekend.

Father Steve finished third in his age group in the sprint distance, while daughter Alison, 16, finished sixth in her category in the Mrs T's competition in Chicago.

And son Adam successfully defended his title in the Dannon Sprinklin Iron Kids event, coming first in the 11-year-old boys' category despite suffering from a high fever in the days leading up to the race.

Petty senior, competing in the sprint distance of 750m swim, 12-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run, finished in 1:18.34, for an overall placing of 33rd in a field of 962. Alison was a little under 14 minutes behind him, clocking 1:32.06 to finish 254th overall in pleasant conditions with the thermometer touching 75 degrees.

Adam's temperature meanwhile, had soared to 104 at one stage but he climbed out of his sickbed to record a time of 33:41 for the 200m swim, six-mile cycle and 2K run.

The parallel Olympic distance men's and women's events were won by Tony Deboom in a time of 1:50.12 and Joanne Zieger in 2:00:51 respectively.