away from the sport -- then announced his retirement.

The 46-year-old, four times a winner of the Bank of Bermuda Triathlon, took the title from pre-race favourites Jonathan Herring and Neil de Ste Croix, as he turned back the clock to the late 80s when he was one of the top age group amateurs in the world.

In the women's race, Karen Smith relied on her superior run to outlast the challenge of Laurie Orchard.

Few people had given Hopkins a chance in a battle against 16-year-old Herring and de St Croix, with the winner of the last two years, Tyler Butterfield, sidelined by illness.

But ten years after setting the race record on the old Naval Base course he was celebrating a fifth triumph.

"I didn't give myself a chance either,'' said Hopkins. "About five weeks ago I started running twice a week two miles maximum and swimming twice a week about half a mile. I'm shocked, I'm lost for words because when I think of how hard I used to train... "In 1989 I set the record for the Bank of Bermuda Triathlon, which still stands, and in 1999 I go out with a win. So I'm happy. This is probably going to be my last triathlon.'' He added: "I quit triathlon about three years ago but you couldn't really even call this a comeback. It was because of being so involved with the organisation of the CD&P Grand Prix I had to miss that and I didn't want to be left out of everything this year. So I just decided at the last minute to do it -- and I'm glad I did.'' Hopkins, naturally, came into his element in the 12.5 mile bike race. Trailing Herring by a little over a minute after the half mile swim, he needed to.

The teenager is rated a good time triallist but was suffering with a slight cold and by the third of five laps of the bike ride, Hopkins was in the lead.

Both looked to be suffering on the run as Herring held on to Hopkins' shoulder but Hopkins ultimately came in on his own to record a time of 1:02.36.

By then he had stretched his lead over Herring to 45 seconds and could afford a moment of humour, pretending to stagger over the finishing line.

De St Croix, whose swim of 12.32 had put him almost three minutes behind Herring at that stage, made up ground on the bike and, despite sprinting after the tiring youngster right at the death, Herring held on to second place by a second, clocking 1:03.21.

Hopkins agreed that his experience of winning had helped him overcome Herring's challenge. "I think that had something to do with it,'' he said.

"I wanted to come off the bike ahead of Jonathan because I know that he's running a lot better than he used to. I knew Neil was just about out of contention unless I had a desperately bad run.

"I think Jonathan's mistake was that he closed the gap on me too quickly. I was basically waiting for him to close it and then I put in a surge which I think psychologically broke him a bit.'' Herring concurred: "I had him in my sights and I just got a bit over-excited and tried to chase him down,'' he said.

"He stopped to take his water, which many people do with experience. But the second I saw him do that I knew what he was up to -- so it was very intimidating to know that he was ahead of me mind-wise. I almost felt like he was on top of me.'' Karen Smith, meanwhile, was equally smart in the women's race. Aware of Laurie Orchard's strong cycling skills she remained close to her in the swim and shadowed her moves on the bike, sensing that she could take her during the run.

Their comparative times showed just how well that strategy worked. Smith came out of the water in 11.02, seven seconds ahead of her rival, but Orchard had a four-second lead as they both came off the bikes. It was then that Smith romped away with a time over the five miles of 20.46 -- almost four minutes faster than Orchard.

Smith, a triathlete for about four years before taking a year out after the birth of her first child, clocked 1:06.50 overall while Orchard crossed in 1:10.33. Third was young Ashley Robinson Roberts, whose impressive performance brought her an overall time of 1:12.22.

"It's hard to see who's ahead on the swim because you don't really see anyone other than one or two people around you,'' said Smith. "So my strategy was to go as fast as I could in the swim, get out fast and get on the bike and I knew if I could stay somewhere near Laurie I could have a shot at it.

"I thought if I could just get out on the run and not look back that would be okay.'' Among other impressive performers in the individual event were Marcus Betschart, fourth overall in the men's event in 1:04.34 and 15-year-old Nick Taylor who took fifth overall 25 seconds behind Betschart, who has recently returned to the Island.

Surprise entry Kavin Smith had by far the fastest run of 16.14 as he took sixth place in 1:05.04.

Photos by Ras Mykkal All smiles: Greg Hopkins (left) rolled back the years to win his fifth Bank of Bermuda triathlon yesterday, while Karen Smith triumphed in the women's event.

Leap of faith: From left, youngsters Melissa DeSilva, Ashley Kirkpatrick, Flora Duffy and Ashley Robinson-Roberts jump into Hamilton Harbour to prepare for yesterday's swim in the Bank of Bermuda Triathlon. Robinson-Roberts later finished third in the women's race.