Olympic qualifying heating up for triathletes

WEDNESDAY, APR. 18: Flora Duffy and Tyler Butterfield are sitting on the seesaw of Olympic qualifying.

Duffy would be in and Butterfield out if the Olympic qualification process for triathlon were to end this week.

Both are within 200 points of being in or out, but Bermuda Triathlon Association president Neil de ste Croix said it is better than 50-50 odds that the island will see both athletes qualify for London.

It would mark the first time Bermuda would qualify two triathletes for the Olympics.

Butterfield helped his bid with a 28th place finish in the Dextro Energy World Triathlon in Sydney, Australia on Saturday.

Duffy was 48th.

She tweeted after the race: “That was not pretty, but at least my first race of the season is done.”

The result saw her drop two slots in the overall rankings to 55th, but remains safe for Olympic Qualification at #54.

De ste Croix said: “It was good from the point of view that her swim and bike were fantastic. She’s still coming back on the running because she had a foot injury. It’s still very encouraging because her swimming and biking is great – world class.

“I’m pretty sure she’ll make it, she’ll quaify.”

There are six spots below her that also earn a spot to the games and 131 points between her and the first non-qualifier.

The high placing by Butterfield allowed him to crack the top 100 in the world rankings, moving up five places to 96th.

Currently, the person holding down the last Olympic slot is Claude Eksteen from South Africa who is 85th

The current point difference between the two is 173. Butterfield earned 97 points from Sunday’s race.

Three of the 10 men between Butterfield and Eksteen currently are not eligible to go the Olympics because their countries already have the maximum amount of athletes qualified.

Butterfield’s next race is Sunday at the Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup in Japan.

De ste Croix said: “The type of training he is doing is very, very encouraging because he has a lot more to come out, we believe. This puts him in good stead to making the qualifying. There is a good chance he’s going to make it.”

When asked what were the odds of both qualifying, de ste Croix estimated “it was 60-40”.