Olympian Tyler Smith blew his rivals away to win the 2026 Bermuda Half-Marathon Derby.

Better known as a triathlete, Smith decide to test the packed field early with punishing splits, which nobody could match.

Smith crossed the finish line on Dutton Avenue in 1hr 10min 49sec, more than four minutes clear of Ryan Outerbridge, who finished second for the third straight year. Five-times champion Lamont Marshall finished third with Kallan Richardson fourth and Sammy DeGraff fifth. Sean Trott, last year’s champion, finished sixth.

Having last raced in 2017 when he finished fifth, the 27-year-old was delighted to notch up his maiden victory.

“I’m ecstatic to win this race,” Smith told The Royal Gazette.

“So much went into this effort. Behind the scenes I had my family, my girlfriend, my friends, people out on the course handing me off ice, bottles, sponges and I was just hanging on by a thread.

“It was a tough race and I executed really well. I wanted to go through 10K in about 33 minutes. I thought I could run just under 1:10 but waking up today, I felt the heat, felt the humidity and knew this was not going to be a fast day. It was going to be a day of survival and I went out conservative and we had a great field.

“We had a really great field assembled today. I think it was a super strong one, Dennis, Ryan, Sean and Lamont, you had a high calibre of runners in this race, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Pre-race favourite Dennis Mbelenzi was forced to pull out after suffering with physical problems mid-race.

Maddie Durkin came home first to win the women’s race in 1:27:55 and finished fifteenth overall. Christine Dailey finished second for the fourth year in a row but produced a remarkable run just three months after giving birth to her third child.