Digicel TriFest & ITU Continental Cup Countdown
The inaugural Digicel Bermuda TriFest and ITU Continental Cup, a sprint triathlon for elite male and female athletes as well as age group races, is just a few weeks away.
In the lead-up to the race, Bermuda’s own elite Junior Triathletes, Erica Hawley and Tyler Smith, are busy preparing through rigorous training schedules and recently competed in the ITU Junior Caribbean and Central American Championships in Costa Rica, where they placed second and third in their group respectively.
Tyler is currently abroad at the University of Leeds and juggles a dedicated training regime with a busy study schedule. Like any dedicated athlete, Tyler pushes himself to the limit during his stringent daily workouts. The young athlete explained a typical day starts with a high intensity 5,000 meter swim, followed by a 3-4 hour long bike ride.
To push himself to the limit, he will also do a run right after the bike to get the “feeling of tired legs before heading to the gym for strength and conditioning at the end of the day”. When asked about the Digicel Bermuda TriFest, Tyler said he “can’t wait for the fast paced ITU draft-legal style racing”.
Erica is following an intense training schedule in Colorado, where she braves the temperamental weather as she prepares for the race.
She explains, “One day it will be high 60’s and I’ll be running outside in shorts then the next week it’s snowing.”
The upcoming junior athlete cites Flora Duffy as her inspiration, saying she feels “really inspired seeing someone from a small island like Bermuda win so many races in the world circuit, that I started to believe that I could be a pro.”
Besides the warmer weather, Erica stated she is “looking forward to returning to a home crowd and showing my sponsors, peers and family who I am and what I can do”.
The race is part of the worldwide Continental Cup race series, which is the first level of professional racing for triathletes with only World Cup and World Triathlon Series the levels above this.
As the race is also a part of the CAMTRI region, including North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean, the race will attract professionals and elite juniors from throughout the region. The hope is to welcome many neighboring athletes to the island for this event.
Race Director Aaron Smith explained, “It has been over 20 years since Bermuda has hosted an ITU elite level event and a few of us on the BTA thought it was time for us to showcase Bermuda again, especially given the visibility of some of our athletes on the international circuit.
“We were thrilled to be awarded the race and we have some great partners like Digicel and the Bermuda Tourism Authority to help bring it to life.”
Racing will take place in Hamilton starting early on the morning of April 9th, 2017. The race course will be very similar to the planned course for the recently awarded World Triathlon Series races set to be in Bermuda in 2018-2020.
The event will include Junior races over shorter distances for 7 to 10 year-olds, 11 to 12 year-olds and 13 to 15 year-old age groups. Adult Age Group and Elite races will be held over the regular sprint distances of a 750m swim 20km bike and 5 km run.
The Bermuda Triathlon Association welcomes any triathlete either locally or abroad to participate in the Age Group race. Entries close on April 7th at race packet pickup. For more information visit here or contact bdatrifest@gmail.com. Sign up is on racedayworld.com
