The last thing you need after completing a lung-bursting 13 or 26 miles is to be greeted by plenty of smoke at the finish.

But that’s exactly what the first few Chubb Bermuda Triangle Challenge finishers had to endure after smoke from a fire lit on the opposite side of Hamilton Harbour made its way across the water.

Just minutes before Dennis Mbelenzi became the first person to cross the finish line at Barr’s Bay Park, an acrid smell caught the attention of organisers and spectators alike, with burning trash from a property on Harbour Road quickly spotted as the offender.

The first few elite athletes had to cope with the effects of smoke but, thankfully, the fire had either blown out or been put out by the time the majority of committed amateurs had completed their loop of the island.