Tyler Smith took his return from injury to a new level by finishing fifth in the 2026 Africa Triathlon Premium Cup last weekend.

Racing over the Olympic distance, Smith completed the 1.5 kilometre swim, the 39km bike ride and the 10km run leg in 1hr 51min 28sec to round out the top five despite being given a 15-second penalty for a transition violation after his helmet became unbuckled.

After finishing nearly two minutes behind race winner Lasse Luhrs, from Germany, Smith was delighted with what he feels was his best performance in a while.

“It was definitely great to see an improved performance over the week before,” said Smith, who finished tenth in Namibia seven days earlier.

“The Olympic distance traditionally suits me a lot better, so I was looking for an improved performance and I was very happy to walk away with fifth place.

“There were no issues with the wetsuit this time around and it was actually a non-wetsuit swim in the end, which is something that I’m a little bit more comfortable with and meant there were some pretty big gaps coming out of the water between the guys at the front.”

Smith had not raced over this distance since competing at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and feels that this event was perfect for allowing him to gauge where he stands with his fitness.

“One of the big takeaways was that this was actually my first Olympic distance since the Olympics,” Smith said.

“Racing over two hours really gives you an understanding of where your fitness is at, and shows you where you are coming off the winter of work that you’ve done.

“In a sprint distance, small decisions and small little mistakes can really impact the race, whereas over the Olympic distance, the end result is a good indicator of fitness, and it’s typically the fittest guys that end up towards the front of the race.

“ was happy with the way that I felt physically across all three legs. To run over 10K requires a good base of volume in the legs and that’s something that has taken six months to build coming off the surgery.

“To run 32:30, 32:15 is close to some of my fastest 10Ks off the bike and it was pretty tough conditions. That gives me the confidence that the training I'm doing is good, and, the decisions I’ve made are paying off.”

Those decisions included moving to Spain last summer and training with new partners, with the new focus starting to pay dividends

“The training group that I’m now a part of, a lot of the focus is on bigger volume and everyone is focused towards the Olympics,” Smith said.

“The training is more extensive than what other groups would do and really wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to see the results of that, but the race just reaffirmed that I made a good decision to make a change, try something new and get stuck in.

“Interestingly, for me, this is the first time in my career where I’ve felt like I can nudge on the swim a little bit more than where it’s been recently. That is just a combination of only spending a little bit of time in the water and it takes a while to get that swim back.

“If you try to improve your run or your ride, sometimes you lose a little bit of your swim and we’ll have a look at what I can do to make sure that I’m coming up towards the front of these races, making the front pack and then hopefully get myself in some better positions.”

After his African adventures, Smith is heading back to Europe to continue his build up to some big assignments.

“This is still a big year for me with the Pan American Championships, and the Central American and Caribbean Games,” he said.

“We still have a lot of runway to tweak some things and that’s another reason why it’s great to get these early races under the belt and be able to readjust and really understand what I need to do for the rest of the season. It’s great to get that early marker down on the board.”