THE organisers of this year’s Ironman Edinburgh event have apologised to people in Prestonpans for giving them an early-morning wake-up call.

Tannoys blasted out music from 6am on the morning of the extreme triathlon, which began with a swim off Prestonpans.

The move sparked a storm of protest from local residents, who also complained about the disruption to traffic on the day.

Race directors Paul McGreal and Richard Pearson attended a meeting of Prestonpans Community Council to discuss issues raised by the event, which was held on Sunday, July 2.

And they admitted they had not got everything right.

Ironman Edinburgh was held for the first time this year and started in Prestonpans with a 1.2mile swim before competitors took part in a cycle race around East Lothian and into Edinburgh, where they finished with a run at Holyrood Park.

But concerns were raised about the loud music which accompanied the early-morning swim, disruption to traffic, charges made to park on land owned by ScottishPower, and the name of the event itself.

Mr McGreal said: “One of the things we did not get right was the noise. We are planning to improve that next year.

‘Make life better’

“We are looking forward to 2018 when we hope Ironman will happen on July 1. We are more than happy to take feedback and comments and if we can improve aspects of the event to make life better then we will do that.”

The issue of the name of the event was raised by Brian Weddell, community council chairman, who said: “There is an issue with East Lothian not getting the kudos it deserves; could it not be ‘Edinburgh and East Lothian’?

“The swimming was here and the vast majority of the cycling was here because of our magnificent cycling roads.”

Mr Pearson said the issue of the event name would be looked at ahead of next year’s event.

He said: “We 100 per cent agree: a lot of the feedback from athletes who came from 44 countries was about how good the roads were.

“We will work with East Lothian Council to make sure East Lothian is not just a mention in the corner. East Lothian is a delivery partner and they will get that acknowledgement.”

The race was initially going to start further east, at Gosford, but organisers said they made a late switch to Preston Links at Prestonpans.

Mr Pearson told the community council: “We apologise for not consulting with you before the event: it was a last-minute change of venue.”

One the issue of charging to park at Preston Links on race day, Mr McGreal said that East Lothian Council had charged them “like any commercial operation” to hire the site, which is leased by the council from ScottishPower.