Jennings, who received her award last month, has been competing regularly at World Championship level for more than 20 years in a late-blooming career that has taken her all over the globe - Hawaii, Cancun, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Madeira, Chicago….

Two years ago she won the British, European and World titles over the Sprint Distance. This year, in the same category, she took gold in the Europeans and silver at the Worlds in Chicago.

“Doing all that this year, and then getting the British Triathlon award - that topped everything for me,” she told insidethegames.

The good news for Jennings has been followed up by good news for British Triathlon - and Triathlon England - in the form of highly encouraging statistics on participation and membership which underline the fact that this is a sport on the up.

Sport England’s latest statistics via the Active People Survey indicated the growth of female participation in the sport, and continued growth of triathlon. This has been matched with nearly a ten per cent increase in Triathlon England membership this year.

The Active People Survey measures the number of people taking part in sport across the nation. It reaches 165,000 adults, aged 14 and over, and began in 2005/6. Findings are published every six months.

Participants report their individual activities, such as swimming, cycling and running, so measuring data for triathlon - which is recognised to have more than 100,000 participants in Britain on an annual basis - is problematic.

Whilst this number isn’t picked up by the Active People Survey, figures for British Triathlon - which has a membership in excess of 18,000 - show a 38 per cent rise since last year in the number reporting that they were taking part in triathlon on a monthly basis; an increase from 9,700 to 13,400.

Notably, female participation levels in sport have risen, which is being attributed in part to the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign. Overall, there are now 148,700 more women playing sport and getting active once a week, every week, than there were a year ago.

British Triathlon Chief Executive Jack Buckner, the former European 5,000 metres champion, said: “These are encouraging figures from Sport England, and our internal indicators are all positive too.

“Home Nations membership has reached its highest ever level, with Triathlon England membership having risen 9.8 per cent since this time last year.”

Buckner also acknowledged the part triathlon’s starter event, the GO TRI, has had on the figures.

“GO TRI has introduced a lot of new people to triathlon,” he said. “There were 10,000 race starts in GO TRI events this year, and 47 per cent of those registered on the GO TRI website are female. In fact, our highest participation growth area is women over 55, which is hugely encouraging and demonstrates the broad appeal of participating in triathlon.

“Increased participation in triathlon is one of the major strands of our recently launched vision for the sport to 2024.”

Buckner and his colleagues at British Triathlon - including the former Capital One banker Garth Lewis whose new remit includes membership - are thus looking forward to 2016 with a warm glow of anticipation.

“We found the latest figures really interesting and encouraging,” Buckner told insidethegames. “I’ve been here for around 15 months and I find there is a very different feel to triathlon - a sense that you are all in it together. There is a family feel to it. And once you get into it, you tend to stick with it. 

“Our age group competition is very well established, and you get to compete on the same course on the same day as the elite participants. There is a welcoming culture in triathlon.”

That assertion is certainly borne out by Jennings’ experience of a sport which, as she happily admits, takes up virtually all of her time since she retired from her job as a receptionist at the EMAP Offices in Peterborough.

Jennings, who had swum for Northamptonshire in her youth, was reeled in to the world of triathlon in her mid-40s when a work colleague in Peterborough suggested that she come for a swim at his local Pactrac triathlon club.

Having been a member of Werrington Joggers for several years, Jennings was an ideal candidate to extend her sporting range to the triathlon. She bought her first bike, for £50 ($74/€67), and worked on completing her skill-set.

“I had to learn to bike properly,” she said. “Learning about racing tactics took me a little while. After a while I progressed to a more expensive bike, which I found a lot of benefit. Now biking is the strongest part of my triathlon. I train with a group of 10 men – they make me work!”

By the summer of 1993 she was regularly completing in mini-series events - a 40m swim, a 10-mile bike ride and a 5km run - and she qualified for her first World Championships that year, competing at Manchester in the 45-49 age group.

“Back then I didn’t think I would ever qualify for a World Championship,” she said.

Jennings still bikes with her work colleague, who is now 81.

“I’ve been off this month with a bad chest," she said. "This week I was really itching to get on the bike! 

“I feel extremely lucky at 70 to still be able to do triathlon. I don’t actually get any aches and pains, which I know a lot of people do. I don’t push myself 101 per cent – perhaps that’s why!

“Also I have a good group of people I train with. We are all friends together. And I have made a lot of friends around the world. The competition is one thing, but it is the companionship that’s the main thing over the years.”

Jennings has competed at the Sprint Distance since it was widely introduced in 2007. “I was a jogger, not a runner, and I thought it would be easier on my legs," she explained.

Asked if that switch had lengthened her career, however, Jennings responded: “No. I would still be doing triathlon over the standard distance.”

The welcoming culture appears to be appealing to younger as well as elder participants, according to Buckner.

“Triathlon always used to be an adult sport, but now our statistics are showing that it is becoming a second generation sport,” he said. “We are getting more mums and dads coming to do events such as the GO TRI along with their sons or daughters. It is a sport you can do as a family, and that is quite a powerful message.

“Five or 10 years ago you didn’t get teenagers wanting to do triathlon. But now we are seeing a big growth in figures for teenage participation.

“I think that is partly down to the way cycling and triathlon have become more culturally accepted in recent years. The Tour de France in particular has enjoyed a higher profile than ever before in Britain.

“And there is also the cumulative effect of the successful elite role models Britain has in the two sports. For us, Alistair and Jonny Brownlee are superb ambassadors, as are Non Stanford, Vicky Holland and Helen Jenkins on the women’s side.

“We have actively encouraged female participation in the last year. We used a lot of imagery around the This Girl Can campaign at our events. GO TRI is our entry level event, and we got an awful lot more women doing that. We also put on a number of women’s only races.

“We also had a lot of success with images we used during the triathlon in Liverpool featuring women competitors doing the open swim. That is normally the most challenging section for people, and the pictures were taken on a pretty miserable day. But the images of the women worked really well, and we have tried to use them to promote the GO TRI events.”

Unlike swimming, where Amateur Swimming Association membership is a condition of taking part in official competitions, British Triathlon does not insist on membership in the same way.

“We are a sport where you can compete and not be a member of British Triathlon,” said a spokeswoman for the organisation. “We are quite a young sport, and making membership obligatory might be seen by some as barrier.

“In the past, triathlon has been seen as a ‘gruelling’ event for men. In recent years, we have tried specifically to encourage the idea that it is a sport for women and young people too, and we have introduced a variety of competition models, including the GO TRI series, which is aimed at beginners.

“We have around 120 GO TRI events across the country. They are loosely based on the park-run model. There’s a big emphasis on camaraderie, and on the achievement of taking part.

“Typically it will take place in and around a leisure centre, with a swim of between 200-400 metres, a 10k bike ride and a two and a half kilometres run. It’s about getting novices to have a go at the event, and it is also about family members taking part together.

“So yes, we are seeing a lot more teenagers, we call them second-generation triathletes, turning up to these events, often with a parent.

“And the Brownlee brothers would be hard to beat as role models. They’re down-to-earth Yorkshire lads who have worked hard for their success and reached the top. They have also got a huge following on social media - much larger than ours. For instance, British Triathlon has a Twitter following of 35,000 plus. Alistair has 130,000, and Jonny has 103,000.”

British Triathlon has been working on diversifying its entry offers to accommodate those who want to take advantage of all the aspects of membership and those who simply want insurance cover ahead of events.

What also caused a spike in the figures was the announcement that membership would mean applying for an early entry to next summer’s World Series event in Leeds.

Asked how he would like the sport to be positioned a year from now, Buckner didn’t hesitate for a reply.

“The big thing for us in the coming year is winning more medals at Rio 2016,” he said. “That is key. And the second big thing for us will be moving the World Triathlon Series from Hyde Park to Leeds on June 11-12. That is going to be a huge project for us. We want it to be our London Marathon, Great North Run moment, when people go ‘Wow!’

“The decision to move to Leeds involves no disrespect to Hyde Park. It’s been brilliant for us to have been able to race on the 2012 Olympic course, but in London we are just a small thing in a massive city. Whereas in Leeds, over that weekend in June, we will own the city. Leeds really wants the event, and the authorities there have been massively encouraging.

“We plan to put on an event which will attract massive crowds. There’s a great local following for the sport - Leeds is the Brownlees’ home ground - and they have helped with the design of the course.”

Buckner - and Leeds City Council - are hoping to replicate some of the excitement generated in July 2014 by the staging of what Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme described as “the grandest Grand Depart” in the then 111-year history of the race.

“When you think what an impact the Tour had in Leeds - we want to try and engage with people in the same way,” Buckner added.  “The main event will take place on the Sunday, and on the day before we will have an entry level mass participation race as well as a festival targeted at beginners of all ages. 

“Sports do need these big moments - people really identify with them. We want 2016 to provide another big lift to our participation and membership figures.”