Wanaka triathlete Tony Dodds finished second at the Oceania sprint championships in Kinloch on Saturday.
Auckland's Ryan Sissons claimed the honours, giving the New Zealanders a one-two finish.
Dodds led out of the water but Sissons paced his effort superbly, catching Dodds and then easing clear in the closing stages of the run.
''I just felt comfortable today,'' Sissons said.
''I'm feeling pretty fit and while I didn't have an amazing swim, I know there is work to do there, on the bike, I felt good, and on the run, felt really comfortable and knew I had to pick up pace a kilometre out and put the hammer down and got a gap on Tony and pulled away.''
Dodds was pleased with his day's work, albeit like Sissons knows that there are ''work-ons''.
''That was all right. The swim was perfect. I led and then didn't know what to do,'' Dodds said.
''I then had a mishap in transition, kicked off a shoe and had to go back. But the run was superb. We have been doing a lot of speed work and running lately. Ryan just had legs over the last 500m.''
In the women's event, Sophie Corbidge (Auckland) added the open elite title to her 2013 under-23 win.
Corbidge raced superbly to ride away from the field on the bike, establishing a gap that could not be bridged by Ellen Pennock (Canada) over the 5km run, with Fiona Crombie (Christchurch) posting a strong run to grab the final place on the podium.
