Elite triathlete Karen Smith qualified for this year's Ironman World Championships after finishing runner-up in her age group at last weekend's Ironman Triathlon held in Zurich, Switzerland.

The 41-year old athlete, who has represented Bermuda at two Commonwealth Games in the past, completed the 3.8 kilometre swim, 180 kilometre bike ride and 42.2 kilometre run in an overall time of ten hours, –47 minutes and 38 seconds to take second place honours in the women's 40-44 age bracket.

Smith placed 664th in an overall field of 2,200 participants and last weekend marked her return to competition of any sort after being sidelined for the past five months with a hip injury.

"I didn't feel any pain in my hip whatsoever and I am very happy to have qualified (World Championships) because going into the race my running wasn't up to par," the veteran athlete told The Royal Gazette.

"My idea was to just try and get a good bike ride and swim and then see where the run would take me.

"I didn't have huge expectations going into the event because I really didn't know how I was going to fare on the run. I couldn't even run one kilometre on May 24th so this was a big test.

"The last five weeks or so there was still a little pain when I was running ¿ but nothing too serious.

"And I prepared mostly by swimming and biking with only the last few weeks of running.

"All I wanted to do was qualify for the World Championships which I was able to do, and now I have 12 weeks to prepare myself for Hawaii."

Smith led the field in her respective age group before she was overtaken by eventual winner Barbara Minten of Switzerland (ten hours, 45 minutes and 24 seconds) just two kilometers from the finish line.

"My fitness wasn't at one hundred percent, but now I can work hard for Hawaii in October," she added.

The Bermudian placed sixth at the 2007 World Championships in Hawaii after representing her country the previous year at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia along with training partner, Julia Hawley, who opted to complete just half of last weekend's Ironman event in Switzerland.

Hawley will also be competing in this year's World Championships in Hawaii having qualified earlier this year in St.Croix.

"It will be great motivation to continue training together. We have been to two Commonwealth Games together and many other training camps and races.

"This year my goal is to be on the podium in Hawaii and I really want to get myself ready," added Smith.

"Getting to Hawaii is actually the hardest part.

"We have now done the hard part but still want to fare well in Hawaii and so we will see how it goes."

Also competing abroad last week was veteran triathlete, Kent Richardson, who placed sixth in the Elite Masters Division at the Life Time Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The veteran athlete is currently getting himself ready to compete in the ITU Triathlon World Championships which will be held in Brisbane, Australia in September.