Tyler Smith is returning to compete in the Triathlon National Championships for the first time in more than a decade.

The Bermudian, who competed at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, is flying home from Spain today to compete in the event, which carries World Triathlon points, at Clearwater Beach on Sunday morning.

Smith was forced to revise his original 2026 schedule after he failed to make the field for a European Triathlon Cup race in Torremolinos, which was oversubscribed after the Middle Eastern swing of the tour was cancelled as a result of the ongoing conflict in Iran.

“It’s pretty crazy right now with the way the race entries are working and how many people are applying to get in,” Smith said.

“The situation in the Middle East led to some of the races, such as Abu Dhabi, being cancelled so a lot of people are coming for other alternatives and everyone knows that in May the Olympic qualification period starts.

“That’s why even these Continental Cup races are oversubscribed. For Torremolinos, there were 250 guys registered to be part of the race and only 70 guys can start. The problem was that when the start list was generated it was before I had my points from the African Cup races, so I just wasn't ranked high enough to get a start.

“I’m now up to 300-odd in the world, and European Cups in the future shouldn’t be a problem.”

Torremolinos’s loss is Bermuda’s gain with Smith returning to the island to compete in the national championships over the Olympic distance, remarkably for the first time.

“I made a last-minute decision to come back for the national championships and there's still some points on the line, with 50 for the win,” Smith said.

“I’ve never done an Olympic-distance national championship. I did a sprint distance one probably the last time was 2016, so it’s been nearly a decade.

“It’s a really good thing that it lines up with my season, and I think it's a cool thing to be able to do. I remember Tyler Butterfield would come back pretty frequently for the national championships and I think it’s an important thing to do to try to put down some performances on home soil and to continue to try to grow the sport.

“Hopefully coming back and doing a national championships can encourage a little bit of that and also show what level I’m at. Coming off the back of the last couple of years, you start to appreciate that you might not get to do the sport for ever so you might as well try to do some of these races at home and take some of these national championship titles while you can.”

Smith is expected to set a high standard for the likes of Jackson Langley and Mike Evans to aim at.

“It’s a good opportunity to get a full swim, bike and run in and get to try some things in a lower-pressure environment before seeing if I can carry that across to international competitions in the rest of the year,” he said.

“But you never know what can happen in a race and that’s why it’s run. Hopefully it can also set a high bar and maybe that can be a target for people to measure themselves against or aspire to.

“It looks a pretty small field, which is a little bit of a shame. I’d really like to see the field grow for our national championships and get the local domestic triathlon scene back to what it was when I was coming [through]. Right now the juniors are in a really good spot but this is just too long of a race for them at this stage.”

Smith is not planning on going full-throttle in the race, with his coaches devising a plan he intends to stick to during his few weeks in Bermuda.

“The way we’re going to approach it is just to take it as a good, steady training session,” Smith said.

“On a Sunday, we would normally do four hours on the bike and one hour of running, so in some ways, this is actually a shorter distance than a normal weekend.

“When I discussed this with my coaches, they gave me the green light to do it but on the condition that we are not going to reduce any volume going into the race. So this week I'll still train somewhere close to 26 hours through the week and carrying quite a bit of fatigue.

“I’ll be staying in control with the idea that as soon as I finish, I can recover and get back into a good week of training.

“I’m actually going to be in Bermuda from the national championships all the way to the lead-up of May 24, so I’ll be doing two races in Bermuda during a month of training there, which I'm really looking forward to.”