Neil de Ste Croix was the chief beneficiary of some high-profile absentees in the Bank of Bermuda Foundation Triathlon in St George’s yesterday.

With Jonathan Herring, the 2013 champion, taking a break after a busy summer competing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the promising Tyler Smith preparing for this week’s Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships in Suriname, it was left to De Ste Croix to claim the honours.

As it was, the athlete who gave De Ste Croix, 49, most to think about turned out to be Karen Smith, the women’s winner, who was second overall a little more than one minute behind.

De Ste Croix, who estimated that he had not won this race since the late 1990s, finished the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike and 5km run in a time of 1hr 3min 31sec.

Crossing the finish line in St George’s town square in second was Mark Wilcox in 1:05:01, while Chris Hands rounded out the men’s top three, posting a time of 1:06:09.

De Ste Croix took the lead on the bike and managed to build enough of a margin to be almost certain of victory by the halfway stage of the run.

“Without the top guys competing, it was always going to be a bit of an unknown as to who would be the strongest,” said De Ste Croix, who was fourteenth out of the water in 11:27, before posting the fastest times in both the bike, 42:03, and run, 1:03:31.

“Tyler Smith would have just smoked it if he had been here. Tucker Murphy was missing, too.

“They say running is for prey and I was the prey today as Mark Wilcox has been training for the New York Marathon ... and I was scared.”

It proved to be a memorable day for the De Ste Croix family, with Neil’s sons, Cameron and Max, both delivering stellar performances.

“Both of my sons did immensely well today,” he said. “Cameron came second in the junior individual advanced and Max was in the run today with an adult team that finished third overall.

“It’s been a good day for all of three us.”

Wilcox, who admitted that De Ste Croix had been too strong on the day, said that he was encouraged by his performance as he steps up his preparations for the New York Marathon in November.

“It was a nice, fun course, a little different with the swim going around [Ordnance Island], said Wilcox, who celebrated his best finish in the race. A couple of us [including De Ste Croix] went a little farther on the run because the turnaround guy was a bit farther up than he should have been.

“We did an extra half-mile, costing us a bit of time, but it didn’t really matter too much.

“Neil was too strong for me today; I didn’t see him come out of the swim and I didn’t see him on the run.

“It was a nice combination workout for me as I prepare for the New York Marathon. This performance gives me some confidence.”

Karen Smith, the mother of Tyler Smith, said that she did not have any expectations before the race, having just completed a gruelling training regimen in preparation for next month’s Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. But 1:04:38 in St George’s yesterday made her the equal of all but one.

“This race was either going to be great or really bad or me,” said Smith, who was fourth out of the water in 10:04.

“I’ve just come off a huge training block for the Ironman World Championship, so I thought I might have had dead legs, but it turned out fantastic.

“I came out of the water in great position and tried not to let up on the bike, although the roads were still kind of slick because of the rain.”

Smith, who finished the bike in 44:05 and run in 1:04:38, said that her only slight disappointment she was being unable to bask in a mother-and-son victory.

“Tyler was unable to race today and it would have been fantastic had we both have won,” she said.

“There would be delight in our household had that happened, but Tyler is going to the Caribbean Cycling Championship and couldn’t fit this race in.

“The last time we raced together was the Tokio Millennium Re Sprint Triathlon [in June], and the Butterfields [Tyler and Nikki] both won on that day, with Tyler and me coming second. We need to hurry up and win together because I’m getting older!”

Julia Hawley was the second women’s finisher in 1:07:01, while Laurie Orchard came third in 1:07:48.