TWO Cirencester women, who live just a couple of miles apart, have returned from the ETU Triathlon European Championships at Alanya in Turkey with medals.

For mum-of-three Sarah Gunn, who won a bronze in the 45-49 years category, it was by some way a career-best performance.

Loughborough University student Jenny Manners is, however, a serial medallist.

Jenny was again competing as a guide to visually-impaired athlete Charlotte Ellis in one of the Paratriathlon races.

The phenomenally successful pairing were bidding for their third successive European gold, having also won the World title in Beijing in 2011.

But there was no sense of disappointment at their silver medal this time, especially as they overtook reigning world champion Susanna Rodriguez of Spain on the final run section and only gave best to fellow Brit, and world silver medallist, Melissa Reid by less than a minute. They finished the Sprint Triathlon in 1hr 08min 36sec.

“Charlotte and I were very happy with the result, especially as we had the fastest run split by 30 seconds,” said Jenny.

“Charlotte has had some issues with a stress fracture in her foot since before the last World Championships in Auckland and she did admit that she could have run quicker, but I don’t think it made any difference to the colour of our medal.”

Sarah, 48, who made it a 1-2-3 for Britain when following home Maria Powell and Julie Tapley, described her medal as a ‘bit of a surprise’.

But, having recorded an overall time of 2:23.13 for the Olympic distance she has now had her appetite whetted for forthcoming major events.

“It is the highest profile event I have ever done,” said Sarah. “It was the most amazing experience. There was a lot of support for GB athletes and I was given a flag to carry in the closing stages.

“Now I want to tackle the British Championships in Liverpool next month, which also acts as a qualifier for the World Championships in London this September.

“I have to give plenty of credit for my improvement to (personal trainer) Dave McKinnon, who has worked with me for the last two years – since I began to take the triathlon more seriously.

“He has kept me focused and offered me some brilliant advice about nutrition, too.”

Gunn and Manners both train with the Cirencester Athletics Club, as well as Performance Cycles in Poulton, but their paths failed to cross at home or abroad this week – until The Standard got them together for our photo shoot.

Intriguingly, they both had exams on their minds while competing in Turkey.

Sarah revealed: “On Saturday night, I heard that I had passed my first-year exams for my BSc in Sports Therapy. Just five more years to go!”

Jenny, meanwhile, was back at Loughborough on Wednesday, sitting an economics exam as part of her Master’s Degree.

There is no time to rest for the 22-year-old as she competes in this weekend’s British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) Olympic Distance Triathlon.

She is in the form of her life as a triathlete in her own right having come off a career-best seventh place in a Super Series race at Blenheim, where she did not finish far behind Team GB Olympian Vicky Holland, who was pipped for gold by two seconds in the Elite Women’s race in Turkey.

As long as Jenny has fully recovered from her trans-European journey, she lines up at picturesque Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire as one of the favourites.