TIM Don and Jacqui Slack won an historic renewal of the Windsor Triathlon on Sunday when - for the first time in its 22 year history - the raced was changed to a duathlon.

The format was altered following water safety advice from the Environment Agency which deemed the River Thames too dangerous for swimmers given the recent high volumes of rain.

With a 1,000 metre run, 42 kilometre bike course and 10k run to finish, the elite pack was always going to be fairly tight but the loss of the swim played to Don's strengths who shook off the disappointment of Olympic selection by leading from the front and crossing the line in an impressive time of one hour 36.51 minutes (1:36.51).

Jacqui Slack was a worthy winner of the women's elite race, breaking away from second-placed Seoinad Thompson early on in the second run to become British National Champion in 1:50:47.

Bill Newbery was not far behind when winning the amateur race, finishing the Olympic course nearly two minutes ahead of Christian Faires in a highly impressive 1:42:57.

In the female race, Mary Campbell (1:59:38) was just one second ahead of second placed Suzette Guerrini.

Taking Sprint honours for the men was Rob Booth who led all the way to finish in 1:11:04 while the first female in the amateur sprint distance was Felicity Cole who also led for the entire race, crossing the line an astounding eight minutes ahead of her nearest rival (1:16:06).

** See Friday's Observer for a Windsor Triathlon picture special **