Andrew Davis took advantage of a suffering Matthew Herring to grab the glory in Bermuda's National Triathlon Championships at the weekend.

Davis, part of the team that won the Bank of Bermuda Team Triathlon a fortnight previously, smashed his personal best by four minutes, completing the 1500 metre swim, 40 kilometre bike and 10 kilometre run at Clearwater Beach in two hours, 13 minutes and 13 seconds.

Herring, who had been leading up to the closing stages before suffering cramp, came in second in 2:13:38, with Jamie Pedro third in 2:16.44.

Karen Smith retained her women's national title with fourth overall in a time of 2:18.06.

Defending champion Kent Richardson did not race, largely due to an exhausting year in which he has competed in the Commonwealth Games and last week's Caribbean Cycling Championships as well as a myriad of local events.

As is becoming customary, 16-year-old Herring led from the start, putting one minute on Pedro and two minutes on Davis in the swim.

Herring, who is heading to the World Triathlon Championships in Cancun, Mexico, next month, continued his surge on the bike, putting another two minutes on each of his rivals.

It was looking like it was going to be a repeat of the Bank of Bermuda individual event as Herring was running strong, if not quite as fast as Davis, for the first five kilometres.

With a four-minute lead going in and still plenty of the course between them, the youngster looked relatively safe.

But his thigh started cramping badly on the third of the four laps and he was forced to stop and start the rest of the way.

Davis eventually caught him halfway through the last lap and finished 25 seconds ahead at the end.

Full results on Sports Scoreboard.