Tyler Smith continued his preparations for the Camtri Junior American Championships by finishing 25th at the European Junior Elite Triathlon Series race in Holten, Netherlands, at the weekend.

Smith completed the 750-metres swim in 8min 27sec, which put him in touch with the leaders, but the slowest first transition saw him having to work to join the lead pack of riders.

Although he caught onto the lead group in a time of 29:21 in the 21-kilometres bike, the effort cost him in the 5k run as he lost touch with the leaders, finishing the run in 18:23 for an overall time of 58:46.

The race was won by Callum McClusky, of Australia, in 57:09.

The Camtri Junior American Championships will be held in Magog, Canada, on July 15.

Meanwhile, Erica Hawley battled through a painful shoulder injury and a broken gear cable to finish 27th in Holten.

The injury forced Hawley out of the European Junior Elite Triathlon Championships in Austria two weeks ago when she had a bike accident the day before the event.

Hawley is still recovering from the injury and competing was a bit of a gamble for the 19-year-old Bermudian, especially in a field stacked with the best junior triathletes in Europe.

The sore shoulder cost her a good placing after the swim where, in recent events, she has been able to exit with the lead group.

However, this time she was almost a minute behind the leaders out of the water after clocking 9:56.

Hawley then suffered another setback on the bike when she broke a gear cable that left her riding most of the 20k race in her hardest gear.

Despite that she battled on to record an encouraging time of 20:14 on the run for an overall time of 1:07.41, almost five minutes behind winner Sif Bendix Madsen, of Denmark, in 1:02.46.

Erin Wallace of Britain (1:03.06) and Laura Swannet of Belgium (1:03.27) completed the top three.