TAVISTOCK Primary School teacher Sam Lake claimed a world title at the weekend.

Lake took victory in her age group at the World Aquathlon Championships in Samorin, Slovakia.

The mother-of-two not only won the female 40-44 category but was also fifth woman overall out of all the age group competitors (16-70).

The event involved a 1,000m swim in the River Danube and a 5km run and took place in boiling hot conditions.

A delighted Lake said: “I have won silver several times before at European Championships and a bronze at my last World Championships in Denmark so this win was extra special to me.

“I had trained extremely hard for it and it was extremely emotional.”

She added: “My official 5km time on the website was 19.37 minutes, however, the course was long by about 0.2m so it was a good PB for me. I did my swim in 14.37 with a current and large waves to battle with on the back end of the swim.

“This is probably my best result to date.”

Lake has represented England Athletics at masters marathon running and competed in the British Marathon Championships five times, achieving a best of 2:59.03.

She has also represented Great Britain several times before at aquathlon.

“I was a swimmer as a child and more recently a runner, but now I combine the two, training regularly with Tavistock Swimming Club, ACE Swimming for open water swimming and Tavistock Athletics Club for running.”

Lake’s next major focus will be September’s European Aquathlon Championships in Bilbao Spain.

Also, due to her latest win, she has automatically qualified for the next World Championships, which will be held in Ibiza next May. She is now looking for help with funding.