IF Chris Mann completes Sunday's Ironman it would be a remarkable sporting achievement in itself.

The 26-year-old Bolton teaching assistant hardly has the sporting CV of someone who is equipped to do the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

He has never done the full swim distance outdoors and has only ever done one marathon – and that was just six weeks ago.

Plus he has been blighted by a series of injuries and mishaps which have threatened to wreck his training programme.

His problems started when he pulled his hamstring three times in the winter.

A rare bright spot came six weeks ago when he completed his first ever marathon – and it was a tough one at that – when he ran the stamina-sapping Bolton Hill Marathon.

But that did not come without its repercussions with the exertion turning his toes black with bruising ever since.

If he was looking for a confidence-booster going into Sunday's big Bolton showpiece sporting event he did not get it at the Llandudno sea triathlon a couple of weeks ago.

It was only a one-mile swim – albeit in colder water than he will experience at Pennington Flash on Sunday – and he had to be pulled out by the rescue team when he began to suffer from the symptoms of hypothermia.

"I started shivering a bit then started to lose a bit of feeling in my arm," said Mann who lives in the Over Hulton area.

"I knew what was happening and thought there's no point in carrying on and risking it, so I got them to get me out.

"Next thing I'm in an ambulance shivering for about an hour.

"And then last week I fell off my bike. The full weight came down on my knee and the swelling is just going down now."

Mann, a big Bolton Wanderers fan who has run the Burnden Aces website since setting it up 10 years ago, is raising money for Bolton Hospice in memory of his dad who died six years ago this week.

And he believes he can finish on Sunday as long as he can get through the swim.

"They call me hop-along, Casualty and all sorts of names at Mount St Josephs School when I work because of all the injuries I've had," he said.

"But I reckon I can do it if I can do the swim, that's the big problem for me.

"I haven't got the technique that people try to drill into you. I always seem to be struggling with the breathing although I have done the full distance in the pool, just not outdoors.

"If I can get to the other side I can pace myself on the bike and I'm okay with the running. If I can get through the swim I'm confident I can finish."

can't get his breathing right when he swims

It seems everything has gone wrong

He has pulled his hamstring three times, only done one marathon and never swam 2.4 miles outdoors.

In the last couple of weeks alone he had a bad fall from his bike when the full weight landed on his knee.

The swelling , his toes are still black from running his one and only marathon of his life six weeks ago , it makes you wonder what more could go wrong.

he has pulled his hamstring three times, never swam 2.4 miles outdoors, fallen off his bike

just completing would be an enormous triumph.