One of the world’s top triathletes has accepted an invitation to speak at next month’s Bermuda Triathlon Association prize-giving dinner.

New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty, the 2004 world champion and a two-time triathlon Olympic medallist, will talk of his past achievements and offer tips on how locals can improve.

The function will be held at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on November 23.

In a thrilling finish at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Docherty was less than 50 metres behind the gold medal winner.

He also won silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, won multiple International Triathlon Union World Cup races and the Oceania Championships gold medal.

Now 36, Docherty, who hails from Taupo, New Zealand, has in the past two years turned his attention to longer distance racing and has already made an impact over the Half Ironman (70.3) and Ironman racing scene.

Last year he won a bronze medal in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. In his home town of Taupo he clocked a record time, finishing the 3.9 kilometre swim, 180K bike ride and 42.2km run (a full marathon) in eight hours, 15 minutes and 39 seconds, over 10 minutes ahead of the second-placed finisher and with a marathon time of 2:49.

He then went on to win the 70.3 Boise event in June and the Vineman 70.3 in July against a strong field, breaking the course record.

In this month’s Ironman World Championships at Kona, Hawaii, in which Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield finished seventh, he was unable to fight off a niggling virus and dropped out despite being among the leaders going into the run.

Dave Morrison, who is coordinating events around Docherty’s visit, met up with him in September in his home in Santa Cruz, California.

“He is really excited about the trip as he has heard so much about Bermuda and of course knows Flora Duffy and Tyler Butterfield ”, said Morrison.

“He is a wonderful ambassador for the sport and has a great sense of humour and I know that our local triathletes will enjoy spending time with Bevan. “

Included in the weekend of events will be an autograph signing session at Bicycle Works.

Full details of the dinner and other events on the weekend can be found at the Bermuda Triathlon Association’s website at www.bta.bm and more information on Bevan Docherty at his website www.bevandocherty.com.