Nick Pilgrim placed 23rd out of 28 competitors in the men’s triathlon, while Jaydon Roberts finished last among 22 participants in the men’s individual recurve archery event, on the opening day of competition at the Junior Pan Am Games in Cali, Colombia.

Competing in the first event of the inaugural Games yesterday, Pilgrim found himself up against some of the top junior triathletes from the region as Miguel Hidalgo of Brazil, Eduardo Nunez Gomez of Mexico and Cesar Xavier Criollo Matute of Ecuador set the early pace.

The trio finished in that order to take the podium positions, though it was Matute who was first out of the water in a time of 9min, 2sec, five seconds ahead of Nunez-Gomez and just eight seconds in front of Hidalgo.

Hidalgo took control of the race on the run (16:16) giving him an overall winning time of 56:40. Nunez-Gomez was second in 57:01 and Criollo Matute third in 57:08.

Pilgrim was further down the field in 23rd place after finishing in a time of 1hr 5min 12sec which included a 9:35 time in the swim, 30:36 on the bike and 22:32 on the run. Two other competitors did not finish while two were lapped in the run and withdrawn.

Roberts competed in two rounds of the archery competition, totalling 535 points from two round scores of 265 and 270 in the 70 metres range.

The event was held at the Francisco Rivera Escobar Stadium, with Nicholas D’amour of the US Virgin Islands placing first with a score of 679.

Adrian Rodriguez of Puerto Rico was second with a score of 669 and Trenton Cowles of the United States third on 668.

Bermuda are represented by 11 athletes at the Games which run until next Sunday. Swimmers Myeisha Sharrieff and Finn Mosley will be in action for the first time today as will Robin Horsfield in mountain biking.

Daniel Phillips is scheduled to play his opening match in the tennis competition on Monday.