When we last heard from former P.C. Gerry Benson in 2013 he had retired in West Yorkshire where he was breeding cattle while closely following the athletic activities of his two children, one of whom was at that time an internationally ranked junior athlete.
 
P.C. Gerry Benson
 

He wrote to us in 2013 and explained, “In relation to my own circumstances I served with the Bermuda Police from February, 1975 through to late 1981 when I resigned in order to return to the UK and a position with the West Yorkshire Police: I retired from that force in 2005.

Whilst in Bermuda I served as a uniform patrol officer and from there I moved into the Criminal Investigation Department. During my time in Bermuda I involved myself, much of the time, with sport, representing the service, along with many colleagues, in several disciplines.

There were MANY wonderful and memorable characters, friendships and incidents, both within and outside the service, to recall from my relatively short time in Bermuda, and I will always reflect fondly on them all; tremendous times and wonderful people - absolutely no negatives.

Editors note -  during his time in Bermuda Gerry was an outstanding athlete and we're hoping that he'll take the time to write in a little more detail about his sporting endeavours while here in Bermuda.  He was an excellent boxer and also participated in the Hawaii Iron Man Triathlon back in the late 70’s when he finished a respectable 70th or thereabouts.

My retirement revolves around my relatively young children aged 18 years and 14 years; some colleagues may be interested in the fact that Gordon, my son - 18 years, is an international athlete and triathlete and he is currently ranked 5th in the junior world standings as a triathlete; Laura, Gordon's sister, also loves athletics.

My own interests include breeding a few Simmental cattle and other activities associated with a small farm; including being my daughter's stablehand!”

So how as young Gordon fared in the highly competitive world of athletics?   Well at latest report he claimed Great Britain's first European Games gold medal with victory in the men's triathlon in Baku, Azerbaijan.

BBC Sports (CLICK HERE for article written by Nick Hope) reported,  'The 21-year-old's success also guaranteed Britain a berth in the event at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Gordon completed the event in one hour 48 minutes 31 seconds. He was ahead of Portugal's Joao Silva (+11 seconds) and Rostyslav Pevtsov (+33secs) of Azerbaijan.

After a strong swim, British team-mates Bishop (16th) and Philip Graves (46th) played a crucial role in helping Benson to the lead during the cycling phase. During the 10km run he broke free from the chasing pack and although the Leeds-based triathlete was briefly caught by Aleksandr Latin of Estonia he soon re-established his lead.

"I couldn't have done it without Tom and Phil," said Benson. "It was a real team effort. It's a shame we couldn't all get medals - but getting the gold is brilliant."

London 2012 gold medallist Alistair Brownlee and world title-winning brother Jonny are expected to secure further Rio Olympic places for Team GB through performances at the qualification event in Brazil in August.

Benson will now hope to be included in World Series races and the Rio test event in order to enhance his prospects of a place in the squad for the Rio Olympics. Triathlon, which consisted of a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run in the European Games, is one of three sports included in Baku 2015 which have direct qualification possibilities for next year's Olympics in Brazil.'

This is surely a case of "like father, like son".  Gerry was always superfit while here in Bermuda, and his son has clearly followed in his fathewr's footsteps - and then some!  Congratulations to Gordon on a fantastic performance.  We look forward to following you continued progress and hope to see you competing in the Olympic Games.