© FINISHERPX
Tyler Butterfield proudly carried the Bermudian flag to seventh place against the world’s best long-course triathletes at Saturday’s Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The result was particularly poignant in that it mirrored the result his father, James Butterfield, recorded in 1981 when he set the event’s run course record as an Ironman pioneer.
Butterfield exited the swim in 51:24, part of the lead pack of more than 20 top contenders, a testament to the improvements he made to his swim speed through training for the London Olympics. On the bike course he remained attentive but not overly aggressive, practicing patience until he joined a break with skilled cyclists Dirk Bockel, Faris Al-Sultan and Frederik Van Lierde, a Cervelo teammate and familiar riding rival with whom Butterfield felt confident to push the pace and glean valuable iron-distance experience. Butterfield reached the marathon run start in sixth position and quickly moved up to fourth, showcasing his run strength.
He remained on form throughout the 26.2 miles, however he could not quite match the speed and iron-distance endurance of a few fleet-footed rivals in the closing stages of the marathon–especially following his focus on short course ITU racing in his London Olympic bid. Thus Butterfield ultimately lost a few positions but gained increased motivation and determination to train more specifically for the longer distance over the next 12 months. Butterfield’s focus for 2014 will again be the Ironman World Championships as well as the Commonwealth Games in July where he plans to represent Bermuda in his 3rd Commonwealth Games. His finish time in Kona was 8:24:09, earning seventh place amid the exclusive top ten men at the sport’s notoriously grueling world championship event.
Comments are closed.