Steve Millington bounced back from his disappointing performance in the Sinclair Packwood Memorial Day race to be crowned national time trial champion yesterday.

Millington could not live with Tyler Butterfield and Kris Hedges on May 24, being dropped by the pair at the Waterlot Inn in Southampton in a race which saw Hedges complete an historic hat-trick of wins.

Hedges returned to the US shortly after, leaving Millington to battle it out with Australia-based Butterfield at Southside.

And he got the better of the Island triathlete over the 25.75 mile course, finishing in 1:00.47 with an average speed of 25.42 miles per hour.

Butterfield came in second in 1:01.23 to cap a fine trip back home following success in the Shell Gold Cup triathlon, a second in the Sinclair Packwood Memorial Day race and a fourth in the May 24 Marathon Derby. Veteran Greg Hopkins placed third in 1:03.49.

Last year's champion Jonathan Herring was unable to keep pace with the leaders, coming in seventh in 1:05.29.

The first woman was Nikki Egyed in 1:09.11 but the companion of Butterfield's was not given the ladies' honour as she is visiting from Australia.

The first local female was Lynn Patchett, who rounded off a fine few days after her Marathon Derby success.

Geoffrey Smith, in the 15-16 category, was the first junior, coming home in 13th place in a time of 1:07.31.

In the 16.08 mile race for juniors, Flora Duffy, in the 15 to 16 class, added to her Memorial Race win with victory in 47.22 ahead of Matthew Godfrey, in the 13 to 14 class, who finished the course in 50.13.

In the 9.64 mile event, Alexander McManus came first in a time of 27.54 with Timothy Fox second in 28.44.

Michael Coles, in the ten and under class, took honours over the 6.41 mile event, finishing in 21.4 with Tyree Armstrong second and Claire Hawley third.

Melanie Claude enjoyed a terrific unofficial ninth place finish in the Bedford Two-Day race in England yesterday.

Fellow Bermudian Julia Hawley placed 26th as a result of being involved in a crash.

However, it is hoped her performance will still have been good enough to meet the qualifying standard for the Commonwealth Games.

Full story tomorrow.