Bermuda’s triathletes will line up this Sunday 28th October to contest the AON National Sprint Triathlon Championships with racing getting underway at 9AM at Clearwater Beach.

The main event is the senior national championships over 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run for individuals and teams with overall and age group honours up for grabs.

There will also be junior races for ages 7 to 15 over various age distances for age groups 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-15 and a Tri a Tri for adults over 200m swim, 5km bike and 1km run aimed at Beginners.

With Ashley Couper sidelined with a niggling achilles injury and Karen Smith, last year’s winner, resting up after her 7th place finish in Kona, Maddie Durkin will start as a strong favorite to collect her first national title. Maddie showed in the Tokio Millenium Triathlon, where she led off the bike, that she has developed into a strong contender for national titles. Her nearest challengers could well be Amber Mehta who had an impressive race in the age group sprint event at the ITU World Cup Bermuda in April and Louise Wells who was 3rd behind Maddie in the Tokio Millenium Re Triathlon.

The men’s race should be a very closely contested affair with defending champion Alan Potts facing a stiff challenge from Phil Mace, 2nd behind Australian professional triathlete Adsy Gordon at the Tokio Millenium Re Triathlon in which Alan was 3rd. Alan was 44 seconds behind Phil in that race. Another one to watch will be Corey Brunton who was just 5 seconds behind Alan in Tokio. Geoff Smith is nursing an injury so may well not complete the race but should be one of the early leaders into T2. However, the biggest threat on Sunday could well come from youngsters Nick Pilgrim and Caleb Ingham. The AON National Sprint Championships has often proved to be the breakthrough race for up and coming junior triathletes. Caleb could well content for a top 3 finish but don’t be surprised to see Nick Pilgrim on top of the podium on Sunday.