A SOLID performance from Kendal's Lauren Munro-Bennett saw her finish seventh woman overall in the British University and College's Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships at Burton-under-Needwood.

Representing Durham University, Lauren turned in a gritty performance in the 1,500 metre swim, 40 kilometre bike ride and 10 kilometre run.

Lauren described the start of the swim as being "quite aggressive" because of the large number of competitors taking part who were all wanting to take a good line.

"I made sure I stayed focused and stuck to my line," said Lauren, a former Kirkbie Kendal School pupil. "After three laps of the pond I came out the water in 11th place which put me in good stead for the bike which tends to be my weaker discipline."

Lauren said her legs felt heavy at the start of the bike race and had to switch to the small chain ring because she could not get into a good rhythm.

"But after a few kilometres of thinking: ‘I am in trouble if I feel like this the whole way’, my legs finally started to feel good and I got into a better rhythm, so I set my sights on the girls in front," said Lauren.

The hilly course played to Lauren's strengths, the former fell runner picking off a number of girls as the weather became gusty with hail.

"Although I couldn’t quite see where I was going for the a good chunk of the rest of the bike leg, it didn’t phase me because of my fell running background and being used to racing in hideous weather, so it probably worked in my favour!" said Lauren.

On the three lap run Lauren remained focused in a bid to maintain her present position and felt strong. She came home as seventh girl and overall she finished 64th out of 208 competitors, beating her time of last year over the same course by ten minutes.