Exactly 50 people have entered the Blake / Neill Triathlon Camp 2015 which gets underway tonight with a Meet and Greet Session and Seminar on nutrition for athletes presented by Ben Lau and Myra Dill.

Coaches Mike Neill, Jasper Blake and Christine Fletcher (along with visiting Canadian junior coach Kelly Guest) arrived safely after an overnight flight from British Columbia Canada with camp organisers Dave Morrison (me !) and Sue Edney. They immediately went for a run before exploring the Southlands Beach area. There were smiles all around at the sunshine and warmer temperatures.

FOR THE BRICK SESSION OF THE TRIATHLON CAMP TO BE HELD ON THE EVENING OF THURSDAY 5TH FEBRUARY PARTICIPANTS WILL NEED A STATIC TRAINER (ALSO KNOWN AS A WIND OR MAGNETIC RESISTANCE TRAINER). THEY WILL ALSO NEED WETSUITS FOR THE WEEK.

A NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS NEED TO BORROW TRAINERS AND / OR WETSUITS. WE HAVE HAD SOME LOANED BUT STILL NEED A FEW MORE.

IF YOU CAN LOAN A TRAINER OR WETSUIT PLEASE EMAIL ME ON DM@UPTONMANAGEMENT.COM. WHOEVER BORROWS THE TRAINER OR WETSUIT WILL ARRANGE TO PICK IT UP FROM YOU AND RETURN IT TO YOU.

ALSO LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE A TRAINER OR WETSUIT THAT YOU WANT TO SELL AND I WILL PUT THE WORD OUT WITH CAMP PARTICIPANTS.

As previously reported, the deadline to sign up to be considered to represent Bermuda at the Nat West Small Island Games in Jersey, Channel Islands from 27th June to 3rd July 2015 is this Friday 16th January.

To sign up to be considered EMail races@bermudatriathlon.com.

You may have to compete in an Olympic distance race scheduled for February 14th. 

Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield has announced that he will concentrate solely on longer distance racing and specifically be targeting the Ironman World Championships in Kona this year. Butterfield had indicated that he would try for a third Olympics in Rio in 2016 but has determined that he will need to dedicate himself fully to Ironman racing if he is to achieve his stated goal of at least taking a podium position at Kona.

Butterfield finished an impressive 7th in Kona in 2013 after holding down 4th place until just a few kilometers from the finish. He then made an impressive start to the 2014 season by winning the Abu Dhabi Long Distance Triathlon against a strong field that included the then reigning Ironman World Champion, Frederic Van Lierde. However, despite appearing to be in contention early in the bike at Kona in 2014, Tyler suffered from back problems and was forced to DNF after the bike.

Meanwhile Nikki Butterfield, a former U23 Triathlon World Champion who also had a stellar cycling career, has announced that she will not be racing professionally and will concentrate on looking after their two small children and acting as Tyler’s manager.

For more on Tyler and Nikki’s decision, go to Bermuda Island Stats (Triathlon section) via the Links section of this blog. Island Stats also has an interview with Tyler on his decision that you can listen to.

With just over three weeks to go until the start of the Neill / Blake Triathlon Camp there are already 25 people signed up with 9 others indicating that they will be signing up before the end of the weekend. The camp may reach record numbers (52 being the most in the previous 4 years).

The camp gets underway with a Meet and Greet session and seminar on Friday 30th January and the camp sessions run over the weekend of 31st  January and 1st February with various other sessions scheduled during the following week in the early morning, lunchtimes and evenings. The camp will culminate with a wrap up dinner on Friday 6th February and a mini triathlon for all participants on Saturday 7th February at Clearwater Beach. There are sessions for more experienced triathletes and Beginners sessions with both groups coming together for some sessions although with participants working at their own pace.

The youngest participants signed up are 16 whilst the oldest participant is 62 !! This year will be the 5th annual camp and those athletes who have participated in all five camps will be recognized at the wrap up dinner.

Coaches Jasper Blake and Mike Neill who live in Victoria BC are both former top professional triathletes who transitioned some years ago into coaching and have built strong reputations as leading coaches with their respective coaching companies, B78 and Human Powered Racing. They will be joined this year by Christine Fletcher, a current professional triathlete who also coaches with B78 and is based in Vancouver.

In an effort to attract more beginners a free “one on one” one hour session is being offered to anyone who gets a Beginner to sign up and gets the Beginner to indicate on the form that they were persuaded to sign up by he/she.

Full details on the camp and its schedule and an entry form can be found at http://www.bta.bm on the home page in the top left hand corner.

Two time Olympic medalist and World Champion Bevan, who was the BTA’s speaker at the 2014 Annual Dinner, announced his retirement from triathlon yesterday.

Bevan cited injuries and wanting to be with his family as the main reasons for his decision. He has no definite plans for the future yet.

Bevan was one of the greatest Olympic distance athletes ever and also won the New Zealand Ironman in record time and won a medal at Worlds 70.3 and a number of big races over this distance. He was renowned as a tough competitor and a practical joker who had and no doubt still has a passion for triathlon and like most Kiwis for sport in general. He will be greatly missed and I expect that tributes will pour in over the next few days.

Here is the text from his announcement :

Hey Everyone

Well all good things come to an end and I would like to officially announce my retirement from Professional Triathlon. 　

Triathlon has been a wonderful part of my life and I’m glad I was able to share it with all of you!

You can find my official announcement on my website　http://docherty.kiwi

Thanks for everything over the years and I hope to catch up with you all at some point.

Bevan Docherty

Best of luck Bevan.

If you can sign up a Beginner for the Neill / Blake Triathlon Camp that runs from January 30th to February 7th, 2015 and they state on their form that you got them to sign up then you will be entered into a draw for a free one hour “one on one” coaching session with one of the camp’s three coaches ( you get to chose the coach !!).