Evan and Riaan Naude made it a family one-two in the individual men's event at the Bank of Bermuda Triathlon yesterday, while Karen Smith won the women's race for the eighth time.

Evan Naude took the men's title for the second year in a row in a time of one hour, two minutes and 24 seconds, narrowly beating out his brother who followed hot on his heals, finishing in one hour and three minutes. Veteran Neil De Ste Croix was third in a time of 1.06:13.

The twins were neck and neck for much of the race, with little to seperate them in the swim, where Evan completed the half-mile circuit in 12 minutes and 35 seconds, and Riaan posted a time of 13:19.

It was a similar story on the bike which Riaan edged by 29 seconds, and in the end, Evan's better run made all the difference. His time was almost three minutes slower than his personal best of 59:42 in last year's race, and much of that had to do with 25-knot wind that battered the triathletes during yesterday's race.

"I'm tired, but happy with the result," said Evan, who recently competed at the World Championships outside Brisbane in Australia.

"I think the wind slowed down the times compared to last year, it was quite a bit slower, the water was pretty choppy and it was tough on the bike, going out was pretty hard especially.

"I felt comfiest on the run probably, I felt pretty confident on the bike, but when I saw how close my brother was I got a bit scared, so I had to keep pushing it."

For Smith the race was a chance to experience the sport over the shorter sprint distance, two weeks before she heads to the Hawaii Ironman, the most prestigious event on the triathlete calendar.

"It was quite challenging with the conditions," said Smith, who won in a time of 1.07:31. "With the swim I just started and went heads down and didn't try and fight the waves, I just tried to do what I could, but it was really choppy. And then on the bike, particularly heading out to Crown Lane roundabout, I think it was a 25-knot wind straight on, so you had to be really aerodynamic today.

"And if you fight the wind it's not going to be your friend, so you might as well make peace with the wind. But on the return you got the most beautiful tailwind and I just couldn't go fast enough, it was just wonderful, it was a great feeling. I don't know if it evens itself out overall, but you didn't have to fight the wind the whole way, so that was good.

"I've got the Hawaii Ironman in less than two weeks and today was really just a completely different race. This is a sprint, so it's full on, whereas I was thinking about the Ironman and it would be like doing seven of the swims, 48 laps of the bike, and 26 laps of the run, so it's quite a bit different training.

"I don't really get that chance to do the fast stuff very often, so I'm really happy with today because the swim felt great and the bike felt great, the run was a little tricky for me, but I was really pleased with how it turned out."

Smith came home nearly ten minutes ahead of Vanessa Madeiros who was the second fastest woman in 1.16:52. Molly Pilgrim was only a step behind in third with a time of 1.16:58.

While Naude and Smith successfully defended their titles, a new trio won the team event after last year's winners were unable to enter. John Legge gave his team the perfect start with a flying half-mile swim which he completed in just 10 minutes 23 seconds, Arthur Pitcher followed that up with solid 12-mile bike ride, and although second going into the final three-mile run, Calvert Lee raced home in 18:05 to give the Pick 3 team the title.