Tyler Butterfield proved he is still a force to be reckoned with, placing eighth out of 41 in the Under-23 Male division at the Triathlon World Championships yesterday.

Competing in Queenstown, New Zealand, the Bermudian finished his course in two hours, 00.50 minutes to clinch a top-ten spot in his first major event since a long lay-off from the sport.

Butterfield, who is yet to make a decision on whether to vie for a spot in next year's Olympics, completed his 1.5 kilometre swim in 20.34, his 40K bike in one hour, 06 minutes, 11 seconds and his 10K run in 34.06.

His category was won by Javier Gomez of Spain in one hour, 59.07.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, two other Bermudians registered commendable results in Age Group segments of competition.

Kris Hedges was 18th out of 82 in the Male 20-24 category while Steve Petty placed 50th out of 77 in the Male 50-54 category.

Better known for his cycling prowess, Hedges took on some of the top triathletes in his age range "just for fun" during his off-season.

The 23-year-old clocked two hours, 11.12 minutes (23.29 for the swim; an hour, 06 minutes 15 seconds for the bike and 41.29 for the run).

"The course was pretty good though it rained Friday night ? the night before Steve's and my race ? and that made the transition areas a little wet. There was a lot of mud," said Hedges, whose division was won by hometown triathlete Kieran Doe in 2:01:43.

"I went off pretty early ? at 8.50 in the morning ? and it was still quite chilly at that time."

The top cyclist expressed satisfaction with his result, noting he had "limited training".

"I found I did pretty good. I think my swim could have been a bit better but I had a good bike and I had a slight stitch going out on the run so I didn't push the pace. I just settled into a rhythm."

Petty recorded a time of 2:46:58 with his swim taking 27.10, his bike, 1:25:41 minutes and his run 54:08. Another Kiwi, John Hellemans, triumphed in that age group in 2:09:06.