Butterfield’s Rio quest begins at Clearwater

Tyler Butterfield’s road to the Rio 2016 Olympics starts at Clearwater on Sunday at the Catlin Bermuda National Triathlon Championships.

The Abu Dhabi International triathlon winner and Ironman competitor heads up a strong 100-plus field for the 1.5km-swim, 40km-bike and 10km-run Olympic event, with this summer’s Commonwealth Games team-mates Tucker Murphy and defending champion Jonathan Herring also in the field.

In the women’s line-up, defending champion Karen Smith, Laurie Orchard — Bermuda 2013 Triathlete of the Year — and Belinda Castree are ones to watch.

Butterfield said: “The national championship is always important. I haven’t flown back in previous years but with Catlin coming on as a major sponsor and Bermuda triathlon really growing, it’s becoming a bigger event and it actually has ITU (International Triathlon Union) points.

“So this is my first stab at trying to qualify for Rio and even though people might say that’s such a big difference — Bermuda to Rio — you have to collect these ITU points and this is a race I need to do well in, in order to get into other races.

“Plus, I have a World Cup in a month [in Mexico] and I did this distance only once, I think, last year. So this is good test for me for the Commonwealth Games and the event in a month.

“I’m going to race as hard as I can on Sunday, not just for me as a workout but so Jon [Herring] can say he swam with Tyler! And if he beats me he’ll be, like, ‘sweet, things are going well’!”

Herring is returning to action after a back injury ­– but says it’s always a thrill to go head to head with long-time friend Butterfield.

“Tyler’s been a mate of mine since I was three years old so I’m always stoked to see him around. We grew up racing each other so any time I get to see Tyler on the start line is a privilege.

“And he’s turned out to be a pretty decent athlete! So he’s doing alright for himself. It will be good to have him around and it’s always good to have a marker to measure yourself by and to remind yourself that you have a lot of work to do.”

He added: “It’s going to be good – it’ll be a good day out, there’s going to be some fit guys ands there’s some guys on the island who have been doing some 70.3 Ironman so they are going to be strong and Sunday will be a breeze for them.”

Women’s champion Smith, who won her age group at the recent Los Cabos Ironman Triathlon, admits it will tough switching down in distance.

“I typically focus on the longer Ironman distances and I guess it’s easier to go down from Ironman to Olympic than Olympic to Ironman but that being said, it’s a different type of training.”

She added: “It’s been a couple of weeks of getting back into structured training and Sunday will be a good test of where I’m at. You just never know if you’re going off base fitness or whether you have enough in the tank.”

Orchard, she says, will be her main competitor when the start gun goes.

“Laurie is super strong. She’s quick and dominant on the bike and that’s usually where we see each other quite a bit. But it brings out the best in each other. It's nice to have someone who is very similar who you can push you and make you that much quicker.”