Duffy wins silver, Butterfield bronze at CAC Games (update)

Flora Duffy picked up Bermuda's third medal of the Puerto Rican CAC Games when she finished second in the women's triathlon Saturday morning.

Tyler Butterfield followed that up with bronze in the men's event behind two Mexicans.

Bermuda had previously won bronze in 50m rifle prone with Ross Roberts and men's single bowling with Damien Matthews.

With one silver and three bronze, this will be one of Bermuda's best showings in the CAC Games and there is still a week to go.

This is only the fourth silver medal Bermuda has ever won the CAC Games.  

Duffy finished exactly one minute behind Claudia Rivas of Mexico. Duffy's time was 2:08:46 and she was over four and a half minutes ahead of the bronze medal winner from Colombia.

Prior to the event Duffy downplayed her chances to finish on the podium.

“Training has been going well and I am excited to race. This will only be my third triathlon back since Beijing so everything is still coming back to me. The humidity will make things tough but having grown up in Bermuda hopefully I won't suffer too much. I am not a fan of racing in such hot conditions though....so we'll see.”

She has spent much of the year cycling for the University of Colorado.

Butterfield finished the race in 1:58:34, 2:18 behind winner Francisco Serrano of Mexico. Crisanto Grajales of Mexico won the silver, breaking the tape 1:09 before Butterfield. 

Today in Puerto Ricco at the Central American and Caribbean Championships Tyler had to settle for third place after the Mexican Team executed superb team tactics.  

Francisco Serrano, a strong all-round triathlete, led from start to finish entering transition two with a three minute lead. This allowed his Mexican teammate Crisanto Valencia to relax in the frustratingly uncooperative bunch as arguably the fastest runner, with no obligation to work as his teammate was out in front.

This is a classic cycling tactic. After the race Tyler commented he was “pleased to see this type of team racing pay-off in triathlon, the Mexican team raced very intelligently”.

Triathlon is still very new to the concept of team tactics.

Tyler was in the main bunch of fifteen out of the swim that contained all the main contenders excluding Serrano who was already off the front. With little to no cohesion in the bunch Serrano continued to gain time riding solo in first position.

Through the technical turns in the final sections of the bike Tyler was able to put a gap of 15 seconds between himself and his biking counterparts leaving him to run out of transition two in second place. Valencia ran across the gap to Tyler to put the Mexican team into first and second place, and Tyler into third for the day.

Tyler was hoping to regain some time in the second half of the run after all his endurance training he has been doing of late, but Valencia was just too strong.

In the last kilometer Tyler ran in with the Bermuda flag, high-fiving the crowd, acknowledging their support. Tyler is always one to give back to the supporters, thanking everyone for coming out to watch the race on such a hot and humid day.

Overall Tyler was pleased with his event and is looking forward to getting back to Boulder and into his Hawaii preparation. He will start his block three of five on Monday (he will complete a fifteen week preparation for Hawaii- five three week blocks of two weeks hard, one week moderate), capping off block number three with the Boulder 70.3 Half-Ironman on the eighth of August, where he was second last year.

Flora Duffy from Bermuda was second in the women’s event. She led for much of the day but the heat and humidity got to her in the final stages of the run. Flora is coming back into form after a rough few years of injury and illness. Tyler said after the race “Flora had a great day, she has proved once again she is one of Bermuda’s finest athletes. It was great for Bermuda to