Great Britain triathlete Dave Hutchins returned this week from the World Championships in the USA with a world class result finishing 25th in his age group.

The Mary Tavy based athlete just missed a silver medal finishing fourth in the European Champion-ships in Finland earlier this summer but completed the Las Vegas event in 6 hours 28 minutes having peddled the120k/75 mile bike race in 3hours 56 minutes and the 30k /18.5mile run in 2hours 30minutes.

'The bike event went really well with the gears and drive train all working perfectly,' said Dave.

'I must thank Darren Bostock and his mechanics at Okehampton Cycles for setting it up so well for me.'

The Nevada scenery around the shores of Lake Mead were a stunning backdrop with the 1,200 world class athletes setting out in the early morning sunshine with some really challenging long hill climbs out into the desert heat to look forward too.

The early morning 4k open water swim was cancelled by ITU officials at the last minute,  which was an enormous dis-appointment for the athletes who had travelled from all over the globe, including a large team from Japan, New Zealand and South Africa as well as the European countries. However, after overnight heavy rain with air temperatures a little above freezing, the water temperature in Lake Las Vegas had dropped below 14 degrees celsius, the minimum safe limit for an ITU event.

'I'm really pleased overall with my results, to finish 25th in my age group in a world class event like this is just amazing, a fantastic end to my competition year completing four long distance events.

'I'm really looking forward to an easier few months of training now getting ready for next year.' said Dave.