Defending champion Riaan Naude overcame blustery conditions at Clearwater Beach on Sunday to comfortably retain his men's overall Shell Gold Cup Triathlon title, completing the 750 metre swim, 20 kilometre bike and 5K run in one hour, six minutes and 39 seconds

In a closely fought women's race, Joanna Shillingdon held off a fast-finishing Karen Bordage to lift overall honours.

Jason Mastalir, one of Bermuda's most talented junior swimmers competing in his first senior triathlon, exited the water with a big lead but was soon overtaken on the bike by Naude as well as the improving Travis Cooper, veteran Steve Petty and juniors Mark Smith and Matthew Godfrey.

Naude then opened up a comfortable lead on the bike with Norbert Meyer quickly moving up the field.

Going into the run there was no catching the South Africa who continued to widen the gap while Meyer used his superior running speed to haul in Cooper, Godfrey and Smith and take second overall, as well as first in the men's 40-49 age group, in 1:11:47.

Godfrey placed third in 1:13:45 to win the 16-19 men's age group with Travis Cooper fourth.

Smith, who impressed on the swim and bike, had been holding down third place overall after a gutsy run but misjudged the number of laps and after crossing the line had to go out on the course again, costing him valuable time. He still held on to finish fifth and take first in the 13-15 age group just ahead of Thomas Godfrey.

Petty took 50-plus honours with an impressive sixth place overall.

In the women's race, Shillingdon and Bordage finished the swim just seconds apart but it was Shillingdon who pulled away on the bike. However, she then almost gave the race away as she overshot the bike finish and was uncertain how to continue, wasting valuable time. However, her two minute advantage going into the run was enough to hold off Bordage as she finished in 1:18:06 with Bordage a close second in 1:18:35.

Veteran Lea Osborne took third overall in 1:21:31 to win the women's 40-49 age group.

Other age group winners were Amy Fox in the girls' 13-15 and Midge Oliver in the ladies 50-plus.

In the men's team event there was little to separate the front two as the trio of Ian Maule, Neil De Ste Croix and Neil Halliday held off Thomas McMelian, Rooney Davies and B.Fitzgerald to win by just seven seconds.

Mary Hopkins, Marcelino Ferreira and Melissa Ferreira were the first mixed team while Megan Franklin, Laurie Orchard and Anna Eatherley took women's team honours.

Eleven-year-old David Lunn won the advanced junior event for 13-15 year olds over 300 metres, 15K and 3K in a quick 52:17 while Martina Edney and Ashley Fox had a seesaw battle in the same age group among the girls with Edney just edging ahead on the last lap of the run.

Steve Conway and Hilary Evans were the senior duathlon winners over a 2K run/20K bike/2K run course.

In the junior races preceding the senior event, Justin Ferreira produced one of the most impressive performances of the day as at just eight years old he finished well ahead of the 7-10 field in the 100 metres swim, 5K bike, 1K run and in the process won the boys' 7-8 age group ahead of Tadhg O'Shaughnessy.

Equally impressive was 12-year-old Rebecca Heyliger who continued to dominate the girls' 11 to 15 age group, finishing ahead of allcomers over the 200 metres swim, 10K bike and 2K run to also win the girls' 11-12 division. Alex Godfrey took top honours in the boys' 13-14 while Brighton Swan (11-12 boys) and Hayley Evans (13-14 girls) were the other age group winners.

Gabriela Arnold was a comfortable winner in the girls' 7-8 group with Nicole Amaral just holding off Piper Hamill for second. The much improved Annabella Doyle edged the younger Molly Pilgrim to win the 9-10 girls whilst Kai Peters produced a strong swim/bike in the boys' 9-10 age group only to be edged out by Mark Godfrey who overtook him on the run to win the age group.

Connor Outerbridge ( boys' 7-8), Somer Froud (girls' 7-8), Giles Lorimer Turner ( boys' 9-10), Isabella Arnold (girls' 11-12) were the junior mountain bike winners with 7-10 team honours going to Rebecca Forgesson, Emma Franklin and Hannah Nicol (girls) and Andrew Forgesson, Alex Griffin and Jonas Schroder ( boys).