Tyler Smith took a nasty spill on his bike but still finished in the top half of the field in the Camtri Junior Elite Triathlon in Florida on Saturday.

Smith came out of the 750-metre swim in seventeenth place in a time of 11min 6sec, just 22 seconds behind the leaders, and seemed well set at that point.

However, right after mounting Smith hit some debris on the road and lost valuable time, to make matters worse the cable on his shoe snapped in the crash which limited his ability to catch the front five who had already opened up a sizeable lead.

He finished the ride in 29:21 and was 32 coming out of transition, he picked up six spots during the 5 kilometre run, finishing the distance in 18:46 to complete the course in 1hr, 29secs, enough for 26th out of 61 starters.

Erica Hawley, meanwhile, finished 30th out of 57 starters in the female event.

Hawley was 20th out of the water in 12:24, and then finished her bike ride in 32:18, her only hiccup came when she missed the water stop on the run and suffered on the second lap finishing in 22:52 for an overall time of 1:08.42. Another three of Bermuda’s junior triathletes were in action yesterday, with Alex Pilgrim, Nicholas Pilgrim and Lynsey Palmer competing in the Camtri F1 Youth race series over the same course in Sarasota.

Alex Pilgrim had the best day, finishing tenth out of 38 starters in the boys’ event, completing the 350m swim, 6.4km bike, and 2.5km run in a time of 27min 33sec.

Younger brother Nicholas was 26th in the same race with a time of 30:34, while Palmer finished fourteenth out of 23 competitors in the girls’ event with a time of 31:04.