Husband and wife Brett Forgesson and Anna Eatherley anchored their respective teams to the men's and women's titles in the 10th Bank of Bermuda team triathlon yesterday at Albuoy's Point.

Forgesson, swimmer Kevin Insley and cyclist Greg Hopkins led from start to finish to win by 46 seconds (1:27.19) over the teenage trio of Graham Smith, Jonathan Herring and Tyler Butterfield in 1:28.05.

Eatherley, swimmer Lindsey Taylor and Laurie Orchard were comfortable winners in the women's category, finishing almost 13 minutes ahead of Carolyn Conway, Donna Fletcher and Jessica Marwick.

The smiles by the winning men's team were in contrast to the disappointment of main contenders Nuri Latham, MacInnis Looby and Kavin Smith after a lap miscalculation by Looby left Smith with almost a lap to make up on Forgesson.

Smith started more than four minutes behind and came in about two-and-a-half minutes behind Forgesson in third place.

Looby had started a seventh lap before another rival, Butterfield, already on his run, pointed out to him that he should have been finished.

Nonethless, Smith doesn't blame Looby for the error which may or may not have cost them victory. "He was concentrating and was deep into his thing and missed it,'' said Smith.

"A lot of people wouldn't understand that, but that's where he was and it happens. I was disappointed initially but that's the maturity of an athlete to say that's reality. I forgive him.'' Looby admits he felt he let his team down: "Definitely, we probably could have won it,'' said Looby, who returned from the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia only the day before.

"Tyler told me I was finished and he didn't have to say anything. He was on his run and I have to give him some credit for sportsmanship.'' Forgesson says he wasn't aware of what was happening behind him. His aim was just to maintain the lead that Insley had given the team when he was first out of the water.

"There were some good teams out there and I thought Kavin Smith would be closer and I was surprised to see him so far back,'' said Forgesson. "I'm not so sure what happened, but I'll take it, I'm not complaining.

"I think that our success was down to Kevin's swim. If you look at the split time for Greg and I, you'll find that we probably weren't the quickest.'' Hopkins had the fastest time on the bike (37:39) by 18 seconds over Jonathan Herring while Forgesson ran the six mile in 33.47 compared to a 32.18 time by Kavin Smith, 32.58 by Tyler Butterfield and 32.26 by Jay Donawa, whose team of Whayman Butterfield and Mike O'Connor placed eighth.

The winning team never looked back after Insley was first out of the water in 15.53, a minute and 17 seconds ahead of Graham Smith and two minutes and 15 seconds ahead of Latham.

"It was a question of getting a good start and hopefully as much of a lead as possible,'' said Insley.

"The important thing with the swim is if you can get a lead early on it's very difficult for the pack to close that down. I pushed very hard early on so it was a very painful second half, but it was worthwhile.'' Hopkins said: "For me personally I wasn't that strong because I just got back from Malaysia yesterday, but the road conditions probably helped me in that I was able to take the corners quicker than quite a few of the riders.

"I've always said that Brett Forgesson is the toughest guy when he's under pressure and if anybody can hold it together with Tyler Butterfield and Kavin Smith chasing you down then it's Brett.'' The women's race was closest after the swim stage when Taylor came out of the water 56 seconds ahead of Marwick. After that there was no contest as the lead was stretched another six minutes and 27 seconds on the bike by Orchard before Eatherley added another five minutes and 26 seconds over Fletcher on the run to finish 16th overall in 1:40.22.

"It was a little windy and wet but it doesn't worry me at all,'' said Eatherley.

Eatherley and Orchard's job was made easier by Taylor's swim when she was 14th out of the water.

"It was pretty rough in the water, actually,'' said Taylor, who is comfortable swimming freestyle. "We were never really swimming against it (wake), most of the time it was hitting us from the side.

"I couldn't see where my competitors were, just the people in front of me and I was always trying to catch them up. I enjoy the long distance swims and the last one I did was Trunk island and I did well there.'' Said Orchard: "I had a good lead after Lindsey did the swim, she came out great in the water. I was hoping we could stay up in that position overall because there weren't that many female teams.

"I was able to go quite hard, harder than I thought I would because the roads were really slick. I'm fairly strong on the hills and that was my advantage today -- that I could power up the hills and gain some speed back.'' Butterfield, Herring and Smith took the junior title by a massive 15 minutes while Joey Richardson (cycle), Tracy Wright (run) and Jamie Pedro (swim), of Parks and Fisheries, won the company division in 1:34.18. Second, almost three minutes behind, were Bob Oliver, John Edwards and Clarence Smith of Horizons in 1:37.12.

Jane Christie, Kim Mason and Colleen Nelson won the female masters with a time of 1:47.49 while Richard Mason, Sylvester Jean-Pierre and Tab Froud won the male masters in 1:32.18. They were fourth overall.

A total of 78 teams completed the race.