Two Bermuda athletes taking part in the ITU World Duathlon Championships came fifth in their respective age group categories — with Ricky Sousa taking a top-20 place overall in the non-elite race.

He and Lynn Patchett flew the flag for the Island at the McDonald's 2007 Duathlon in Richmond, Virginia, which was combined with the elite world championships for the two-discipline sporting challenge that featured a 15-kilometre run, 76km cycle and a final 7.5km run.

Long distance specialist Sousa (pictured) finished just 13 minutes behind the winner of the non-elite race, with a combined time of three hours, 37 minutes and 23 seconds.

He knocked out an impressive opening 15km run in 55:24 before jumping on his bicycle to complete 76km in 2:08:43 and then hitting the road for a final 7.5km run in 31:26.

Three years ago he competed in the event when it was held in Denmark. He bettered his performance this time around and was particularly pleased to finish 20th overall in the race, which had 325 finishers (excluding elite athletes).

"I came up a few places. The second run of the day was the toughest part. The bike course was very technical," said Sousa, who was fifth in the men's 45-49 category. The age group winner was Jeff Terry in 3:30:46. Conditions on the day were good with no wind. Sousa's finishing time compared well with non-elite overall race winner Lee Piercy (UK) who managed a time of 3:24:29.

Bermuda's Lynn Patchett was 118th overall and fifth in the women's 40-44 age category after chalking up a set of times of 1:05:44 (15km run), 2:26:31 (76km cycle) and 40:40 (7.5km run) to record a finish time of 4:15:36, compared to age category winner Melanie Roberts (USA) who achieved 3:54:02.

The overall fastest woman was Amy Kloner who finished in 3:48:32.

Sousa made the duathlon his main target for the year, but is hardly giving himself time to put his feet up before taking part in the New York City Marathon a week on Sunday.

He said: "New York is going to be on the fun side. My endurance level is up so it is going to be interesting to see how I perform there."

• The elite race was won by Joerie Vansteelant in a time of 3:06:42. He is the brother of current world champion Benny Vansteelant, 30, who was killed while on a training cycle ride last month as he prepared for the event.

The elite women's race was won by Great Britain's Catriona Morrison in 3:34:56.