Geoffrey Smith believes he may have surprised one or two people when he won the AON National Sprint Triathlon Championship at the weekend. But the teenager is determined they won't be surprised in the future.

Fifteen-year-old Smith beat off the more experienced Riann Naude and Jamie Pedro to claim the title at Clearwater Beach in a time of 1:08:05 - an honour he will add to his Pirates Port Sprint Triathlon victory earlier this year.

He had trailed pre-race favourite Pedro by 40 seconds after the 750 metre swim and despite losing a few more seconds his rival on the 20 kilometre bike he started the 5K run within striking distance, knowing that in recent races Pedro has struggled in that discipline.

That again turned out to be the case and by the second of three laps Smith surged ahead.

"I think people were surprised, I guess," said the Warwick Academy student. "But I knew with the distance that Jamie had on me I could catch him."

Naude overtook Pedro in the final stretch of the race to claim second and Smith admitted to having to hit the gas to keep the South African behind.

"He started to scare me on the last lap so I had to sprint to make sure I won comfortably," he said.

Smith said he felt in good shape after crossing the finish line.

"I wasn't that tired and I felt comfortable on the run," he said. "That felt the best out of the whole thing."

Smith puts much of his advancement in the sport down to his trio of coaches, Neil de St. Croix, Chris Harkness and Ben Smith.

"They have all been pushing me and I don't think I would be where I am today without them," he said.

That training is quite intensive for someone still at school.

"I swim three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I run at the track on Tuesdays and do biking on Thursdays," said Smith. "On Saturday mornings I do triathlon training with TriHedz and I also do the Bermuda Bicycle Association on Sundays if I'm not doing triathlons," said Smith.

The youngster's goal is to bring his time down by several seconds from his best times of around 1:07:00.

"I plan to do a 1:04:00 or 1:03:00 by the end of the year," he said. "But it's going to be pretty hard."

Meanwhile, national triathlon champion Andrew Davis, who has been focusing on cycling for the first part of the year, did well to finish fourth just a few seconds behind Pedro on Sunday.

Former national champion de Ste Croix showed a welcome return to form to finish fifth, despite trailing the early leaders after the swim.

Two other 15-year-olds, Coyatito Smith and Khamari Greaves, continued their good progress finishing sixth and eighth respectively.

The women's race was more predictable as Karen Smith once again dominated the field after passing another 15-year-old, Flora Duffy, early on the bike.

Duffy, last year's champion, finished a strong second behind Smith, who was also seventh overall despite taking a wrong turn on the run.

Deanna McMullen, the winner of last year's Shell Triathlon, made up for a poor swim with a very fast early bike and seemed well positioned to challenge for second place but suffered a flat tyre that put her out of the race. The experienced Karen Madeiros came through in third.

The team event saw a strong entry and a tight finish for the overall title with the team of Michael O'Connor, Marcelino Ferreira and Mark Morrison holding off the fast finishing PWC Team of Jason Krupp, Evan Naude and Brendan O'Riordan by just two seconds.

Earlier in the day a large junior field produced some notable performances and a close finish in the competitive boys 11 to 12 age group. In the end Geoffrey Burns, the winner of the Pirates Port Triathlon, took the age group after a strong bike ride, with Dorian Armstrong coming through for second place after catching Tim Fox on the run.

In the 13-15 age group Erek Fox trailed after the swim but a strong bike and run saw him take overall honours ahead of the younger Thomas Godfrey with Alex McManus in third place. Fox was also the first 11-15 year old finisher holding off Burns by just six seconds.

As expected Caitlin Conyers and Amy Fox took first and second respectively in the girls 13 to 15 category with Conyers using her running ability to pull away after finishing the bike with a narrow lead. Ashley Fox produced her best performance to date as she upset Kaitlin Miller to win the girls' 11 to 12 age group after a strong run.

David Lunn showed again that he is one to watch as he was the convincing winner in the boys' nine to ten age group winning by more than a minute from the promising Vaughan Barritt, the early leader after a fast swim.

Chelsea Lines finished with a strong run to catch Claire Hawley in the girls' nine to ten category. There were two clear winners in the seven to eight age group with Nathan Amaral winning the boys' category by three and a half minutes and Jazmine Outerbridge the girls' category by an astonishing eight minutes, even though she rode a mountain bike. Her time would have placed her second amongst the seven to eight boys and her swim and run time were the fastest overall in the age group.