Hedz junior triathlon club begins training for the 1999 season.

It was in 1978 that Bermuda held its first triathlon and, ironically, one of those responsible for the growth of the sport, Jim Butterfield, is the father of one of the most promising youngsters two decades later.

Tyler Butterfield, 16, has emerged as a world class junior.

But he has not been the only junior making a name for himself both at home and abroad since the inauguration of the successful Gibbons Company Junior Triathlon in 1988.

Established triathletes like Stephen Petty, whose son Adam has won his age group at the Chicago Dannon's Sprinklins Triathlon five years in a row, have also pushed the sport forward. Now there are eight top class multisport events on the junior calendar.

The real growth of the programme began in 1994 when Dave Morrison, a former president of the Bermuda Triathlon Association, invited the top three finishers that year in each age group of the Gibbons Company event to participate in a weekly training session. Before long some 20 triathletes between seven and 14 were training.

Some of those early tri Hedz athletes who started at age nine included Butterfield, Chris Conway, Nick Taylor, Brian Steinhoff and Mark Morrison who are all now competing successfully with the adults. There are a number of girls, too, with Robyn Dickinson, Melissa DeSilva, Ashley Kirkpatrick, Flora Duffy and Ashley Robinson Roberts emerging as exciting prospects.