CAROL CLARKE maintained her remarkable consistency in major World and European championships by collecting a bronze medal at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Rotterdam.

Tackling the 65-69 years age group in the female sprint distance competition, Carol helped the British team to a marvellous one-two-three-four clean sweep in her discipline, as she finished little more than two and half minutes behind GB winner Wendy Read.

Carol, a member of the Cirencester AC and Triathlon Club, completed the 750-metre open water swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run in a total time of 1hr 32min 35sec.

She has finished in the top four at her last five major events, collecting European silver medals in Geneva (2015) and Lisbon (2016), and just missing out on the podium at the World Triathlon Final in Cozumel (Mexico) last year and at the Europeans in Dusseldorf earlier this summer.

Rotterdam provided Carol with her first ever world championship medal.

The British team had arrived in the Netherlands to unwelcoming heavy rain and strong winds and course familiarisation day on the Thursday before the race proved a real challenge for swim training due to the cold and the strong waves.

However, come race day, the sun came out and it brought the best out of the Cirencester triathlete.

A strong swim in under 17 minutes was followed by an improved bike time of 42.37 which meant she entered the 5k run needing a personal best to get among the medals.

Racing home in a PB of 23.58 saw Carol pull back more than three minutes on the eventual silver medallist and she missed out on second place by just 40 seconds.