Twelve young Bermudian triathletes from the TRex junior group will tomorrow be competing in the Barrie Triathlon, Canada.

Joining them will be three other juniors from Bermuda, Justin Ferreira from the Tri Hedz Triathlon Club and Malakae and Zamari Outerbridge. The group arrived in Barrie on Thursday and previewed and trained on the course yesterday morning.

Barrie is known to be one of the most competitive junior races in Canada, but coach Dave Morrison expects the Bermudian juniors to do well with David Lunn and Jazmine Outerbridge (12-13 age group) and Justin Ferreira and Gabriella Arnold (10-11 age group) strong candidates for a podium finish having already notched up some impressive wins in races abroad over the past few years. Lunn, who has been a triathlon scholarship student at Kelly College, Flora Duffy's school, is carrying a painful heel injury so has been forced to limit his run training which may affect his chances of holding on to his perfect record racing abroad.

Zamari Outerbridge and Martina Edney will race in the 14-15 age group over the 500 metre swim, 10 kilometre bike and 4km run. They will face tough competition in this age group and a top 10 finish would be a good result for both athletes.

In addition to Lunn and Outerbridge in the 12-13 age group will be Kai Peters, Izabella Arnold, James Lorimer-Turner and Nathan Amaral, who will all compete over a 300m swim, 10km bike and 3km run. Amaral has been in good form this year, winning his age group in a number of Bermuda races and having improved his run will be looking for a top five finish while Peters has enjoyed success abroad, finishing second in his age group last year in the Canadian Junior West Coast Championships. He will find the competition tougher in the older age group, but his strong swim and bike riding skills should move him into the top part of the field. Izabella Arnold has improved with every race and is a strong cyclist who could be the surprise package in the group if she can put together a good race tomorrow. Lorimer-Turner will be racing in his first triathlon outside of Bermuda but he too should finish in the top part of his age group.

William and Giles Lorimer-Turner and Isabel Thompson are also competing in the 10-11 age group over the 150m swim, 10km bike and 2km run course, all of whom are expected to acquit themselves well in their first race outside of Bermuda.

Rounding out the group will be Padraic O'Shaughnessy and Malakae Outerbridge, who race in the 8-9 age group over 100m swim, 5km bike and 500m run. Both are relative newcomers to the sport and will benefit from the experience of racing abroad with O'Shaughnessy already showing real potential.

The only dark cloud is that the weather forecast for tomorrow for Barrie is thunderstorms with the fear that the race could be postponed and juniors may stay away because of the conditions. That would be a huge disappointment for these juniors who have trained hard to prepare for the race and come a long way to test themselves against some tough competition.