Jonathan Herring and Kristyn Robinson ran away with the men’s and women’s Open titles in yesterday’s National Duathlon Championships at Clearwater.Herring completed the combined 10K run and 30K bike ride in an overall time of one hour, 25 minutes and 36 seconds to finish nearly five minutes ahead of second-placed Dominique Mayho (1:29.30). Chris Harris (1:29.44) rounded off the podium finishers among the men.Robinson successfully defended her women’s crown after covering the course in one hour, 32 minutes and 50 seconds to finish fifth overall. Joanna Shillington (1:42.09) and Emma O’Connell (1:47.34) completed the top three in the women’s field.Unlike Robinson who led from start to finish, Herring had to come from behind after finishing second behind Harris in the first 5K run.“I had no idea how to pace the race with a strong runner like Chris who really put in a strong first run,” Herring said. “But he had a bit of a mechanical problem coming out of the transition and so I easily caught up with him.”Even then Herring had his work cut out trying to hold off top cyclist Mayho who managed to shave the former’s lead from two minutes to 56 seconds heading into the final run.Mayho recently won all three races in the Butterfield Bank Cycling Grand Prix.“Having Dominique in the race kept me really honest and I couldn’t let up at all with him breathing down my neck,” Herring said. “He’s got an amazing pair of legs on him.“I had no idea how he’d fare after a strong ride so I had to go a lot harder on the bike than I expected.“It was very humid and it definitely affected a few of us. I just tried to get a lot of fluids in and it worked out. I had no idea what to expect going into this and it hurt like hell.”Robinson simply had things all her own way as she finished more than ten minutes ahead of nearest rival Shillington. Her winning time was also more than four minutes faster than the 1:36.58 she achieved at last year’s National Duathlon Championships.“It’s always good to know that you are improving,” Robinson said. “There was some cloud cover that was pretty nice and everyone on the course was so supportive, it’s such a great event.”Robinson entered the event with a game plan that ultimately paid off.“I needed to make sure I had a fairly strong, good run because Joanna is a really good runner and then just come on the bike strong which is my strength,” she said. “I just widened the gap on the bike and left enough in the legs for the second run.“I did that very well and everything went according to plan.”Alex Southern and Amber Simons claimed the seven to eight-year old boys’ and girls’ titles while Nicholas Pilgrim and Julianne Oatley reigned supreme among the nine to ten-year old boys’ and girls’ divisions.Zion Dowling and Alyssa Rowse won the boys and girls 11-12 age groups while Chris Oatley and Victoria Davis claimed top honours in the 13-14 boys and girls divisions.