With just two weeks remaining before the Triathlon World Championships in Madeira, Portugal, Bermuda's sole professional triathlete, Tyler Butterfield, put in another impressive performance on Sunday.

On the heels of a 40th place finish in Japan two weeks' ago, Butterfield finished a creditable 36th at the International Triathlon Union's (ITU) World Cup event in Mazatlan, Mexico.

Despite a great improvement in recent months in his swim times, the young Bermudian trailed the main pack by almost a minute as he came out of the water, finishing the 1,500 metre swim in 18 minutes and 40 seconds.

However, Butterfield was again mentioned in ITU media releases following his outstanding bike ride over the 40 kilometre course during which he pulled back a pack of riders to get himself into contention going into the ten kilometre run.

His overall finishing time of one hour, 54 minutes and four seconds was just one minute and 25 seconds outside a top 20 finish - a result which will have given him huge encouragement going into the World Championships.

The race was won by Canada's former world champion and Olympic and Commonwealth gold medallist Simon Whitfield in 1:50:31.

Meanwhile, on the local front, Sunday's Pirate's Port Triathlons produced some exciting racing to open the season.

In the Olympic distance event, which attracted a small field, Riian Naude and Norbert Meyer, both of whom will be competing at the Panama City Half Ironman Triathlon in two weeks' time in the USA, emerged from the 1500 metre swim close together and neither were able to open a gap on the 40K bike or 10K run.

In the end, Naude, who always appeared to have an extra gear, put in a burst on the last lap of the run to win by just 13 seconds in two hours, 19 minutes and 19 seconds.

Veteran Steve Petty finished third while Deanna McMullen (2:31:25) won the women's race but looked to be feeling the effects of her recent Half Ironman race in California just three weeks ago.

In the sprint event over a 750 metre swim, 20 kilometre bike and five kilometre run, the expected showdown between Jamie Brown and Evan Naude, this year's National Duathlon champion, never materialised as Naude had to withdraw with a knee injury.

That left the way open for Brown who took top honours in an impressive time of 1:03:12.

Fifteen-year-old Matthew Godfrey produced another impressive performance as he led Brown briefly after the swim and held on well to take second overall from another junior, Coyatito Smith, and a fast finishing Chris Conway.

Flora Duffy led allcomers out of the swim and put together one of her best performances for some time to win the women's event in one hour, 11 minutes and 47 seconds ahead of Caroline Mitchell, who continues to improve.

The team event saw the closest finish of the day as Logan Alexander outsprinted Simon Ashby to give his team (swimmer Nick Strong and cyclist Matthew Herring) a narrow victory over Kevin Insley, Mark Peters and Ashby.

The super sprint event was won by Chris Brown with Lea Osborne making a welcome return to the sport after the birth of her daughter to win the women's event.

As expected Saturday's Pirates Port Junior Triathlon also produced some exciting racing in the first junior triathlon of the new season.

The 12 to 15 year-olds competed over a 400 metre swim, 15K bike and 3K run and as expected Matthew Godfrey (46 minutes, 28 seconds) was a comfortable winner, taking the boys' 14 to 15 age group in the process.

In a close race for second place Thomas Godfrey (48.26) overtook Tim Fox, who started the run with a slim lead over his rival, and held off a fast finishing Dorian Armstrong.

Godfrey took second in the 14 to 15 age group with Armstrong (48.40) taking third overall and the boys' 12 to 13 age group ahead of Fox (49.38) and Geoffrey Burns (50.24). Amy Fox, who has already competed at senior level, had no competition in the girls' 12 to 15 age group but still put in a strong performance in the warm conditions to take the girls' 14 to 15 division.

The most impressive show of the day came from David Lunn who had a fast time of 34.26 for the 200 metre swim, 10K bike and 2K run to win in convincing fashion from Alex Godfrey (36.18) and Kenny Thompson (38.12).

Alyssa Rose (38.51) took the girls' title in this age group ahead of Chelsea Lines and Madison O'Beirne.

In the eight to nine age group over a 100 metre swim, 5K bike and 1K run, Nathan Amaral (20.28) was the boys' winner, just holding off Jazmine Outerbridge (20.28) who put in a strong performance to finish second overall and take the girls' eight to nine 9 title from Annabella Doyle (24.03).

Earlier in the morning the six to seven age group saw Noah Vides and Elizabeth Jordan win the boys' and girls' categories respectively.

In the mountain bike division, Jasecki and Elijah Simmons won the 12-13 age group. Other winners were Kay Peters and Yuki Hiroshina (8-9) and Kamari Outerbridge (10-11).