THE World Duathlon Championships are beckoning for Nicola Reece.

She will head to Ibiza at the end of April with confidence, after winning a silver medal in the European Duathlon Championships held in Venice, Italy, last week.

The 41-year-old recent High Legh 10K women's race winner, who is director of reward at City Football Group, achieved Venice silver in the 40-44 age group while representing Great Britain.

What makes the Wilmslow resident's success all the more remarkable is that it was only two years ago that she started competing in duathlon, which features a run followed by a cycling leg and then another run.

Even last year she got among the European medals, clinching a bronze in Bilbao, Spain.

Reece, who previously worked in Knutsford as a share plans manager at Wood (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler plc), is an experienced runner and cyclist.

She is women's captain of Wilmslow Running Club, whom she has been competing with since 2018.

And Reece, who hails from Hartford, Northwich, is also an active member of the Cheshire Mavericks Cycling Club in Alderley Edge.

Athletics has been keeping her busy of late.

She competes in the Manchester Area Cross Country League, where she finished the 2022/23 season second overall in her category while also winning the Wilmslow Running Club Women's Vet Team Division One series with her club.

Reece was 10th in her age group in the National Cross Country Championships at Bolesworth earlier this month.