They were without their injured team leader Dyrone Minors but, helped by an impressive replacement in Jay Donawa, Kris Hedges and American Patrick Dideum retained the Bank of Bermuda Team Triathlon title yesterday morning.

The 46-year-old Minors left it late before deciding not to take part ? but the three-time team triathlon champion certainly had no intention of letting others benefit from his absence, calling Donawa, the perennial Princess-to-Princess Road Race winner, and getting him to take his place in the most prestigious triathlon on the calendar.

Dideum, Hedges and Donawa completed the sprint ? involving a 750-metre swim, a 20-kilometre bike ride and a five-kilometre run, in a time of 53 minutes and 43 seconds, over two minutes ahead of the second-placed team of Nick Strong, Wayne Scott and Gary Raynor.

Mike Cash, Garth Thompson and Neil de ste Croix came home third in 57.43 while Tyler Butterfield, his girlfriend and professional cyclist Egyed Nikki and Trunk Island swim champion John Legge placed fourth in 58.36.

?It?s great to win it the for the second straight year and we were obviously helped by having Jay in there with us,? said Hedges afterwards, shortly before a heavy shower forced athletes and spectators to sprint for cover at Albouy?s Point.

?I knew that I?d probably be going out first after Patrick?s swim, but for me psychologically I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike knowing I had somebody like Jay to come in front of me on the run.

?It?s never easy being out in front by yourself and I knew Garth (Thompson) was in second place on the bike and was eating into the lead a little bit on each lap, but thankfully I managed to hang on and give Jay a pretty decent cushion.?

Dideum emerged from the water in a time of 9.28, while Hedges completed the bike in 28.38 before a 15.46 run from Donawa ? the latter being easily the fastest effort of the day.

Butterfield, meanwhile, who only arrived home late on Saturday night and decided to take on the run and allow his girlfriend to complete the bike leg, said it was the first time he had done any sort of competitive running for at least two years.

?It?s nice to have a little break from the bike for a while,? said Butterfield, who recently signed a professional contract with young American cycling team TIA-CREFF and will start with them in January after a couple of months training in Australia.

?Since I gave up triathlon to concentrate on the bike, I?ve hardly done any running but it was nice to get out there in a race situation and I felt like I ran a decent time (he was the second-fastest runner behind Donawa, completing the 5K in 16.14). I?ve been doing some running over in France for the last couple of weeks, but nothing really prepares you for racing.?

In the female team division, meanwhile, swimmer Mary Hopkins, cyclist Karen Smith and runner Anne Eatherley came first by just under five minutes in a time of one hour, three minutes and 52 seconds, ahead of second-placed Ellen Charnley, Kim Denney and Karen Bordage.

In the family team division, the Conways made up of Steve, Carolyn and son Chris fought off some stiff competition from a combined Butterfield and Couper outfit to claim first place in a time of 1:09.13.

Debbie and Spencer Butterfield, together with the recently-married, Stanford-based Ashley Couper came in just over a minute slower in 1:10.24.

In the corporate division, XL?s Mark Peeters, Kevin Topple and William Wood placed first in 1:04.22, followed by Orbis? Geoff Gardner, Dan Brocklebank and Nick Purser in 1:05.17.

In the Masters division, Bermuda Triathlon Association president Stephen Petty?s team ? made up also of Tab Froud and Norbert Meyer ? led the way in 1:02.44 while Kevin Insley, Gary Taylor and Simon Ashby finished second in 1:05.28.

And in the junior division, Alistair Brown, Reid Henderson and Ryan Gunn triumphed in 1:17.14, followed by Carys Pinches, Michael Armstrong and Hayley Evans in 1:23.31.