A Tauranga runner is the winner of three gold medals at the 2011 World Masters Championships in Sacramento, America.

Sally Gibbs won the 5000m, 10,000m and completed a treble at the championships, winning the W45 marathon in a personal best two hours 52 minutes and 53 seconds.

Sally Gibb in action at the World Masters Championships in Sacramento.

The men and women started together in the championships, but Sally was the first woman to finish in 29^th place overall – no other woman ran under three hours in any age group.

Her coach, Barry Ellis is extremely proud of her success, especially since the 48 year old hasn't been running for long.

'She only started about two years ago – I started coaching her 12 months ago and I am thrilled for her, she has put so much hard work in.”

Barry says one of his hardest tasks while training her was to get her to stop racing.

'I had to try and get her to back off a bit – I had to tell her she didn't have to run every race, but she is a strong supporter and wanting to race as many races as she could; I had to put the brakes on.”

The championship took place over 12 days, starting on July 6 and finishing on July 17.

'Our ultimate goal was the 10,000m. She was happy with her time in the marathon, but I kept telling her it's not about the time, it's about the tittles.”