ROSE HALL, St James — Americans Ben Greenfield and Michelle Harburg won the men’s and women’s international distance sections of the Jamaica Triathlon held in Rose Hall on Sunday, starting and finishing at the Iberostar hotel.

Greenfield, who was third last year and who won the International Triathlon Union’s (ITU) Long Course World Championships in Nevada last week, topped the small men’s field, finishing in two hours, 16 minutes and 46 seconds, beating South African-born Cayman Islands resident Johan Heath (2:25.38 hours) and Jamaica’s Patrick Lee (2:33.31 hours).

Harburg finished in 2:42.05 hours, beating Susan Grant (2:43.20 hours) and Jessica Greenfield, Ben’s wife (3:10.03 hours).

The international distance was competed over the Olympic distance of a 1,500m open water swim, a 40k bike ride and 10k run.

The top two finishers in the event praised the newly-redesigned course, saying while it was “challenging” it was much easier to navigate.

Greenfield told the Observer that after his exertions last week he knew his run would not be the strongest, so he had to push as hard as he could on the first two sections to create a gap between his and the others.

Heath, who was also involved in the Cayman Islands Triathlon last week where he was second, told the Observer his biggest challenge came on the run where he said he “struggled”.

Rayne Russell, the organiser of the event, was happy with the outcome. “We exceeded our expectations,” he told the Observer.

On a scale of one to 10, he said he gave his team a perfect score for “a job well executed”.

“This is about the athletes,” he said, “and the experience has been a great one and the host hotel, Iberostar could not have been a better host”.

Russell reported that the Wata-sponsored workshops for students held Saturday was “oversubscribed, as over 700 students turned up”, but said this was good for the sport as it increased the local awareness of the event.

Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Bobby Barnes and American Michelle Fix took the male and female Sprint Races, which was half the International distance.

Barnes clocked 1 hour, 34 minutes and 43 seconds to finish ahead of Jamaican Christian Sale (1:41.44 hours) and American Nathan Hahn (1:41.50 hours).

Fox covered the course in 2:09.53 hours, beating Jamaicans Terry-Ann Miller (2:13.47 hours) and Nicole Thompson (2:30.39 hours).

Cyclists Howard Ward and Dahlia Palmer were the overall winners in 10 Duathlon races — ride and run.

Ward, the National Masters Time Trial champion, was first in 1:43.00 hours, while Palmer of Lucea, Hanover, the double national champion and Caribbean Cycling championships road race silver medallist, won in 1:47.10 hours after missing a turn during the cycling.