Youth and experience were the key ingredients as Kavin Smith, Dana Henry-Rochester and Michael O'Connor swept aside the competition to take the Bank of Bermuda Team Triathlon yesterday.

Henry-Rochester and Smith more than managed to hang on to the title they won last year, despite the fact the team's regular swimmer, Ronald Cowen was unable to make the event.

With seamless transition in came 16-year-old O'Connor, first in last year's juniors, and he blew the swimming field apart to give his team a commanding lead going into the ride.

Thankful for the calm water conditions O'Connor said: "I had Trevor Ferguson and Jonathan Herring swimming alongside and they are really good swimmers.

"I knew I had to push the first lap to try and get ahead of them which I did comfortably and then I just had to hold that. I think I did that pretty well because as I finished they weren't as close as I thought they would be. "I think I had a 30 to 40 second lead from the next team, which was Ferguson's. I expected them to be much closer than that so I must have had a tremendous swim I guess.'' With things looking good, O'Connor handed on to Henry-Rochester -- but then disaster almost struck when he collided with a barrier out on the course.

The cyclist said: "I didn't see the barrier and I hit it, it just kind of came out of nowhere, and it struck my knee. So I had to ease off my pace on the fourth lap and I couldn't keep a nice stroke going. But all in all we still got it and I'm happy that we were able to defend the crown.'' Paying tribute to the youngest member of the trio, Henry-Rochester said: "Our swimmer did excellently -- usually we have Ronald Cowen and he referred me to this young man and he was so happy to be on the winning team. I give him and Kavin most of the credit.'' Smith, who led the team home in a time of 1:30:30, said despite the lead he was keen to put on a show for those that had turned out on the streets of Hamilton to watch.

"I use a day like today as a good time trial,'' he said. "Runners are starting all the time and so there's always someone to reach for and set your sights on.'' Basking in the glory he added: "It's great to keep the title and we are going to try and keep it for as long as possible.'' Second place went to the team of Greg Hopkins, Jonathan Herring and Brett Forgesson who came in in 1:33:32 while the women's race belonged to Carol Rowley, Anna Eatherley and Melanie Claude who notched up a time of 1:40:30.

Lethal combination: Runner Kavin Smith (left), cyclist Dana Henry-Rochester (centre) and swimmer Michael O'Connor -- the winning team in yesterday's Bank of Bermuda Team Triathlon event.