that cost Kris Hedges Sunday's National Sprint Championship.

In a written statement yesterday, BTA spokesman Steve Donnelly defended a move by race director Dave Morrison to penalise Hedges two minutes for accepting a glucose gel pack late in Sunday's event at Clearwater Beach.

Hedges won the 750-metre swim, 30-kilometre bike and 5K run but an ad hoc committee of Morrison, Andrew Doble and Jamie Jared -- acting on a protest from second-placed Neil de Ste Croix -- later bumped him back to fifth spot.

"It is obviously unfair for one competitor to benefit from outside assistance while the other competitors are having to run the race under their own efforts,'' Donnelly said. "With the gap between the first and second finishers being just 16 seconds it is possible that the outcome of the race could have been affected by the outside assistance.

"The athlete readily admitted that he had accepted outside help and that he knew this to be wrong.'' Hedges, 17, acknowledged taking a gel pack supplied by his mother, Jennifer, on the second lap of the run -- but said on Sunday he didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

Hedges and his coach and fellow competitor Greg Hopkins said infractions such as this were commonplace in Island races.

But Donnelly added: "Penalties and warnings have been issued to competitors in the past regarding rule infractions. In order to prepare athletes for the rigours of overseas and international competition it is important that the various rules under which races are run are strictly applied.'' The BTA have adopted the rules of the sport's governing body, the International Triathlon Union, said Donnelly. De Ste Croix, who is president of the BTA, pushed for standardisation of these rules when he recently ran for the post, Morrison said.

Hopkins argued that only recently did the BTA decide to enforce the "outside assistance'' rule and should have made a greater effort to inform competitors.

Neither he nor Hedges had a problem with the rule itself but "simply putting a list of rules in a race package without explanation is not sufficient,'' said Hopkins, a former national champion.

A statement on the entry form told competitors to read the race package, which included rules, when it was handed out on Saturday, Donnelly said.

Hopkins said he would appeal the decision to the BTA executive.

"Everybody knows Kris is the best triathlete in Bermuda right now,'' he said.

"People down there saw he won the event regardless of what happened afterwards.'' Meanwhile, the best female triathlete on the Island over the past few years made a brief return on Sunday. Defending champion Shona Palmer, whose back problems have forced her away from competition this year, entered the race but pulled out after the swim. Julia Hawley won the women's division, finishing 13th overall.

Juniors continued to be the big revelation. At just 14, Tyler Butterfield finished third -- moved up to second after Hedges' penalty -- overall, eight seconds behind de Ste Croix. And less than a minute behind him was Nuri Latham followed by 14-year-old Jonathan Herring who was seventh overall.

Sunday was a day for juniors as most of the 106 youngsters who signed up braved inclement weather to compete in the inaugural Pirates Port Junior Triathlon, held in conjunction with the National Sprint Championships.

The addition of the triathlon increases the number on the calendar to five compared to just one -- the Gibbons Ironkids, this year slated for June 7 -- two years ago. The juniors competed on courses ranging from a 100m swim, 5K bike and 1K run to a 300-metre swim, 15K bike and 3K run.

A group of 11-14 year-old advanced juniors took part in the latter and started with the senior athletes. Chris Conway pulled away from Brian Steinhoff in the run to win the race.

But it was Flora Duffy who stole the show, beating all-comers in the 9-year-old age group.

Junior results, Page 28