Elite junior triathletes Tyler Smith and Erica Hawley will showcase their talents when Bermuda hosts an ITU Continental Cup race for the first time in April.

The pair will be returning home from college to participate in the Camtri Sprint Triathlon American Cup and are both familiar with this level of racing, having competed in similar events over the past few years.

Continental Cup races attract some of the best triathletes in the world and are not just limited to elite triathletes. Camtri federations include Canada, United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

Expectations will be high for Smith and Hawley to impress in the junior elite event.

Smith has been training with many of the top British athletes at the University of Leeds, while Hawley is based in Boulder, Colorado, where she trains with many of the US’s top elite juniors.

The 2017 Hamilton Camtri Sprint Triathlon American Cup will be held April 9 and will also feature elite professional athletes.

Tyler Butterfield and Flora Duffy will not be competing.

The event will be staged in Hamilton over a 750-metres swim, 20-kilometres bike and 5km run. The transition will be at No 1 Car Park with the swim in the harbour, the cycle taking in Front Street, Reid Street, Par-la-Ville Road, Bermudiana Road and Woodbourne Avenue, and the run on Front Street.

Some $10,000 in prize money will be up for grabs for the professional athletes and will be divided equally between men and women, with the winners taking US$1,500 down to fifth place who receive $500.

The race forms part of a week of events sponsored by Digicel known as the Digicel Trifest that will include sprint-distance races for age-group amateurs races over the same sprint distances to include individuals and teams.

In addition, leading junior coaches, Matt Valyo, of the US, (from April 3 to 7) and Kelly Guest of Canada (April 12 to 17), will be conducting junior development camps for 13 to 16-year-olds. There is also the possibility of leading UK coach Steve Trew returning to Bermuda to conduct a camp for under-13 triathletes from April 3 to 7.

Bermuda has also been awarded three World Triathlon Series events in consecutive years starting from 2018.