Tyler Smith and Erica Hawley both found the hot and humid conditions challenging at the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Cozumel, Mexico, yesterday.

Smith, competing in the 16-19 junior men’s race, came 43rd out of 69 finishers, while Hawley placed 46th out of a field of 52 in the junior women’s race.

Starting the race strongly, Smith exited the 750-metres swim in tenth place and was in the lead group on the bike.

He was part of a group of 32 who finished the 20km bike within a few seconds of each other, but struggled on the run and lost ground to finish in 58min 01sec.

Austin Hindman, of the United States, took overall honours in 54:02, with Charles Paquet, of Canada, second in 54:12, with Ben Dijkstra, of Britain, a further eight seconds back in third.

In the women’s race, Hawley found herself more than a minute behind the leader after the swim and was in the fourth pack of cyclists leaving herself a lot to do heading into the run. She finished in 1:05:40.

The race was won by defending champion Taylor Knibb, the outstanding US junior who finished third to Flora Duffy in the World Cup in Montreal last month. Knibb finished in 59:05.

Lisa Tertsch, of Germany, was second in 59:51, with Hye Rim Jeong of Korea third in 59:50.