Tyler Smith finished seventeenth at the Central American and Caribbean Sprint Triathlon Championships in Barbados at the weekend.

Competing in the adult men’s race, Smith had a strong swim, exciting the water in 9min 35sec, just eight seconds behind the leader but failed to capitalise on his position after missing the lead bike group after a slow transition.

The 18-year-old’s bike time of 33:41 left him trailing the leaders in the second transition by about 1:30 and he was understandably below his best in the run as he has been nursing a foot injury.

Smith, who attends Leeds University, completed the five-kilometres run in 18:46 for an overall time of 1:02:24. The race was won by Mexico’s Cesar Saracho, the only competitor to go under 16 minutes in the run, finishing in 57:55.

“It was an exciting opportunity to race against some top competition, with 12 countries and 30 competitors taking the line,” Smith said.

“I was encouraged by my swim coming out of the water in the top five around ten seconds back from the leader.

“With a slow transition — not accurate on its results as I lost my chip — and without good bike legs today, I never made the lead group, and was in a small chase of five guys.

“My run was off normal standards, but understandable in the hot conditions, and I’m happy to have seemingly overcome the foot injury that left me out of the run in Bermuda [Continental Cup] two weeks ago.”