A mother of three from Harpenden has picked up a bronze medal for a European championships.

Aisling Patterson came across the line third in her age group at the European Duathlon Championships in Bilbao, an event which consists of a 10k run followed by a 40k bike ride and finished off with another run, this one over 5k.

Patterson, a member of both Harpenden Arrows Running Club and Verulam Cycling Club, completed the first leg in 42 minutes one second before a strong bike section over a hilly and technical course in 1:15:44.

Her final 5k run clocked in at 23:19 with 4:31 spent in the two transition zones.

It meant the occupational therapist finished with a total time of 2:25:33 in the 45-49 category, a little under three minutes behind GB team-mate Marianne Carpenter who was a further one and a half minutes behind gold medallist Katarzyna Galewicz of Poland.