Tri legend Docherty wows crowd

By Dave Morrison

Jonathan Herring and Laurie Orchard were named Bermuda Triathlon Association’s triathletes of the year at its 2013 Annual Awards Dinner.

Tyler Smith and Rebecca Harrison took the boys’ and girls’ Junior Triathlete of the Year awards respectively.

The event attracted 100 guests and guest speaker, Bevan Docherty, and Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield were on hand to present the awards.

New Zealand’s Docherty won the triathlon World Championships in 2004 and in the same year also took silver in the Athens Olympics, narrowly missing out on gold in a sprint finish with compatriot Hamish Carter. 

He then took silver in the 2006 Commonwealth Games triathlon and then bronze, in another sprint finish, at the 2008 Beijing Olympic triathlon, and silver at the World
Championships in the same year. 

After a 12th-place finish in the London Olympics in 2012, Docherty, now 36, moved up to the longer distance events and in 2012 took bronze at the 70.3 (half -ironman) World Championships and in his first ironman triathlon, in his home town of Taupo, New Zealand, he took gold in a record time. 

Guests were treated to some exciting footage of Docherty competing in the Olympics and from the 2005 New Plymouth World Cup Triathlon in which he produced a spectacular sprint finish to win gold. Docherty then entertained the guests with stories of his long triathlon career.

Butterfield received a Special Achievement award for his impressive ninth place finish in this year’s 70.3 World Championship and seventh place at the Ironman World Championships in Hawai’i.

Docherty and Butterfield also rode for two hours and swam 4km in the ocean with a group of Bermuda triathletes, while Docherty signed autographs for junior triathletes at Bicycle Works. He then competed with a team in a fun triathlon with junior triathletes Alex Pilgrim and Justin Ferreira against Butterfield’s team of Bermuda National Cycling Champion Dominique Mayo and Matthew Oliveira, with Oliveira holding off a “generous” Docherty at the finish.

Docherty, who vowed to return to Bermuda next year, also found time to train with Butterfield as Butterfield prepares for his upcoming ironman triathlon in Cozumel, Mexico. 

Awards were also presented to Heather Cooper and Mark Robinson (Most Improved), Natali Luthi and Tucker Murphy (Best Newcomers) and Tristan Narraway and Erica Hawley ( Special Junior Achievement awards). 

The St. John’s Ambulance Brigade received the Long Service Award and Alan Gilbertson was named as the Club Person of the Year.