Jonathan Herring and Karen Smith were crowned Bermuda Triathlon Association (BTA) Catlin National Olympic Distance Triathlon champions at Clearwater in St David’s yesterday.The event, sponsored by Catlin for the first time, saw competitors tackle a 1,500 metres swim, followed by a 40K bike ride and a 10K run.Herring, last year’s champion, completed the gruelling trek in two hours, seven minutes, 28 seconds, more than four minutes ahead of his nearest rival.Second place went to Tucker Murphy (2:11:50), who the National Duathlon Championships a week earlier, while Mark Wilcox (2:14:03) rounded out the podium places.This year’s race also doubled as a qualifier for local athletes hoping to represent Bermuda at this summer’s NatWest Island Games, and the Age Group World Championships held in London in September.The BTA will select three men and two women to compete in the Island Games on home soil next month.“I’m quite happy with today and retaining the title,” Herring said. “I had a race in Florida, the St Anthonys Triathlon, two weeks ago at the end of training through a three week circuit so I used this to find some sort of form.“Today was my first time on a bike in two weeks, so that took a lot out of my legs, but most of my run was decent . . . it totally drained me and knocked me for six.“I recently took a week off and started from square one this past Monday, so I spent this week doing every part of the sport and it was going fine until my quads started cramping badly on the last lap.“I’m looking forward to July, it will be tough in the heat, but I plan on being a lot stronger and fitter by then.”Karen Smith beat last year’s champion, Laurie Orchard, to win the women’s event, posting a time of two hours, 21 minutes, 56 seconds, while Orchard finished in two hours, 24 minutes, three seconds. Belinda Castree (2:31:25) was third.“It was a bit hot out there but for the most part it was fun and I’m pleased with how everything went,” said Smith. “In the longer version of this sport you have to dig deep and make sure you maximise your energy because you can get drained very quickly and I managed to find the right combination today.”Nicholas Pilgrim (20:16) won the Junior seven to ten category, holding off Alexander Southern (21:21) and Caleb Ingham (22:44), while Matthew Oliveira (35:01) won the Junior 11 to 15 division.Alyssa Rowse (38:56) was second and Max de ste Croix (39:28) was third.Argonauts won the Senior Team male division, while Die Swart Kat won the Senior Team female event.Spook ‘n diesel won the Senior Team mixed category, and Moseley/Pilgrim won the Junior Team section.