Tyler Butterfield fully supports Bermuda’s bid to bring International Triathlon Union World Series races to the island, including the Grand final in 2020 and races in 2018 and 2019.

Butterfield, who along with Flora Duffy, helps promote Bermuda whenever they compete in major triathlons, believes it would be a major boost for the island to host the ITU series.

Much like the 35th Americas Cup next year, which Butterfield hopes to return home to watch, it will help stimulate tourism on the island, he says.

“I think that will be amazing, personally I believe when you’re going to have ITU races the bigger ones are better,” Butterfield said.

“You get TV coverage and also live streaming on the website and it just puts Bermuda on the map.

“The Americas Cup is huge for Bermuda, and that’s a whole different level. I would hope that would show other sports in Bermuda, and the Bermuda public, what sports can do for our country. The fact that Flora is now the ITU world champ shows that Bermuda has a great triathlon team for a small country.

“There’s no reason why Bermuda couldn’t hold an event of that size. Sure, it would be big for Bermuda and big for the triathlon community, but it’s not as big as the Americas Cup. If Bermuda can host the Americas Cup it can hold other big events.”

In the Senate yesterday it was announced that Bermuda is bidding to host the 2020 ITU Grand final, an event which Duffy won in Cozumel, Mexico, in September.

If Bermuda was successful in its bid, the island would also be guaranteed to host two World Series races in 2018 and 2019. Duffy has joined a delegation which will present the island’s bid to the ITU executive board next month.

Butterfield, whose main focus is in long-distance triathlons such as the Ironman, ruled himself out of competing in the World Series races, but would certainly be interested in returning to support the event.

“Personally, I’m just not that good at it,” he said. “It’s one of those events where my best performance is probably going to be around 30th position, whereas in the Ironman distances I have a chance of doing well.

“It would be like asking a marathon runner to run the mile or 800 metres.

“I would probably come down to spectate and be around for that weekend, but I don’t even think I would get a start in the race. You would need ITU points and I haven’t had any since the last race I did in 2014.

“The World Series events have television attached to them, I’ve only done a few of them but they are amazing events, well organised.

“Because they’re so well organised the ITU does a lot of the organisation for it, similar to the Americas Cup, which has a base in Bermuda. You are getting a lot of value out of it.

“Bermuda has to realise if we want Bermuda to be a tourist destination we have to make it tourist friendly. Some will come down for sports, some to play golf and some to sit on the beach.

“The fact that there is Flora, myself, Tyler Smith and a lot of juniors coming up, shows that the people who have run the Bermuda Triathlon Association the past 20 years have been doing a good job. It’s not by chance that these athletes are coming out and doing good things.”

Butterfield said he is in awe of the successful season Duffy has experienced and would love to watch her perform on home soil.

“She’s an amazing athlete and it’s nice to see her reach her full potential,” he said. “She’s going to keep improving with age, and to have three [world titles] in one year is amazing. Everybody knew she was talented, but talent is only half the battle. Some days you do the hard work and some days you still have bad races or bad years. Then some days you do the hard work and it pays off.

“Every athlete enjoys seeing other athletes doing well. It would be great for Flora to be able to showcase herself in a home race.”