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The Naude brothers continued their domination of the local triathlon scene this weekend with a comfortable 1-2 in the Olympic Distance National Championships at Clearwater beach.

Evan Naude cruised to victory by a comfortable margin of almost eight minutes over his brother Riann, who was the defending champion.

Even those competing in the team event - with three different athletes taking on each leg of the triathlon - could not come close to competing with Naude's individual performance.

The South African finished in 2.01.00 (23.26 swim, 61.03 bike, 36.31 run).

Thomas McMahon (swim), Graham Miller (bike) and Greg Reid (run) were the first team to finish with Reid crossing the line just ahead of Riann Naude, still more than seven minutes behind Evan.

Neil De St Croix was third in the male individual event, another ten minutes back.

Karen Smith claimed the women's crown, finishing third overall of the male and female individual competitors. Kim Naude was the second female across the line with Clemmie Stubbs third.

But overall it was all too easy for Evan Naude who admitted he'd been able to take his foot off the gas on the run and not put too much pressure on his body ahead of the Escape to Bermuda triathlon later this year.

"It's always nice to win a national championship but Escape to Bermuda is a bigger goal for me this year.

"I had a pretty big gap on the run so I could relax and not overdo it. There are bigger fish to fry."

He said he planned to train hard over the next few months and try and beat his time from last year at Escape to Bermuda.

"I don't have any aspirations or ambitions of being able to compete against the top pros. They are on a different level.

"It's great to be out there with them and hopefully I can compete against the age-group guys that come down and against myself really to get a better time than last year."

Naude added that he was encouraged by the large field for the early morning event on Sunday with more than 40 athletes contesting the gruelling event.

"There were a lot of new people out there. I think a lot more people are going overseas to do Ironman events and things like that and they are starting to race back here too, which is great."

Bermuda Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championships

Results (swim, bike, run)

Men

Evan Naude (23.26, 61.03, 36.31) 2.01.00

Riaan Naude (26.14, 63.28, 39.04) 2.08.46

Neil de ste Croix (31.27, 64.55, 41.09) 2.17.31

Reid Robinson (27.3, 62.2, 47.58) 2.17.48

Scott Williams (29.47, 63.5, 47.04) 2.18.41

Andrew Davis (25.15, 68.45, 46.07) 2.20.07

John Legge (20.27, 69.1, 52.1) 2.21.47

Ian Port (23.28, 68.44, 49.4) 2.21.52

Matt Thomson (26.39, 69.2, 48.37) 2.24.36

James Porrovechio (30.48, 68.21, 47.38) 2.26.47

Women

Karen Smith (24.42, 67.48, 44.23) 2.16.53

Kim Naude (30.18, 67.16, 42.19) 2.19.53

Clemmie Stubbs (25.42, 75.32, 51.18) 2.32.32

Claire De ste Croix (32.31,84.09, 45.13) 2.41.53

Rachel Rothwell (30.21, 75.34, 57.53) 2.43.48

Teams

McMahon/Miller/Reid (24.4, 62.13, 41.4) 2.08.20

Bolton/Gouge/Morrison (33.15, 59.03, 44.02) 2.16.20

Duffy/Parker/Miller (20.26, 71.13. 45.35) 2.17.14

Ward/Collins/Petty (25.21. 70.19. 60.16) 2.35.56

Marwick/Harbutt/Durrant (25.08, 73.52, 62.21) 2.41.21

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