Bermuda’s female juniors grabbed their chance to shine when winning gold in their respective time-trial races at the Caribbean Junior Cycling Championships on Wednesday.

Annabelle Miller and Charlotte Millington were making their debut at the championships in the Junior and Pre-Junior time trials and adapted brilliantly to the conditions on the 10-kilometere course with the long, straight roads in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, different to the terrain they are used to on island.

The championships have proved a happy hunting ground for Bermuda in recent years and Peter Dunne, president of the Bermuda Bicycle Association, was thrilled that Millington and Miller added their name to the list of winners featuring Kaden Hopkins, Nicholas Narraway and Dominique Mayho.

“I’m head over heels,” Dunne said. “In many ways, sport is just coming out of Covid times and for both these young ladies, this was their first opportunity to represent Bermuda. I was pretty confident that I knew what the range of talent in the Caribbean looks like for junior cyclists and I knew that these two would do well, you just never know who is exactly going to show up from other countries.

Dunne is keen to point out that these results are largely down to the athlete’s self-discipline towards training and the efforts they put in daily.

“They have put in more time consistently than any of our athletes this year. Charlotte is yet to turn 15, she turns 15 next month and for two years now she gets up on Saturday morning to be part of a group ride at 6.15am. I mean how many 14-year-old girls are doing that?

“Annabelle has come into cycling more recently, she was previously involved in gymnastics but she has made this transitions and her brother, Alexander Miller, has represented Bermuda and won at the Caribbean Championships.

“For young women to get up at this crazy hour every weekend when most of their contemporaries are probably not doing much other than sleeping they are out riding and racing against all the guys. Their level of dedication is impressive and I’m pleased their results are backing that up.”

While Bermuda’s girls claimed gold in their two races, the boys were just out of luck as Cameron Morris and Thomas Quarterly finished fourth and fifth in their time trial over 20km.

The action continues on Thursday with both girls competing again in the road race and Moses Johnson joining Quarterly and Morris in the boys’ race