The 35-year-old triathlete finished the race on Saturday with a time of 26 minutes and 53 seconds. 

Fellow CAT member Doody followed with a time of 27 minutes 53 seconds. 

The race began with eight laps of the Cloncurry Swimming Pool. 

Doody and Bennett touched the wall about the same time. 

However, Bennett credited the position of his pool lane as the reason why he was able to reach his bike first. 

From there, he widened the gap despite the brutal temperature.

At 5.30pm it was 42 degrees. 

“The heat was pretty hard, I did not have a water bottle,” Bennett said. 

“I was on the road with the juniors and I must have left the water bottle laps, so for four laps the bike did not have a water bottle.” 

When he realised he needed a bottle he called out to a spectator to pass him one as he cycled past, but he dropped it, which meant he had to cycle another lap to grab it again, this time successfully. 

“He will have to work on that,” another spectator commented when she watched him drop the bottle. 

But the gap was widened because while Bennett struggled with hydration, Doody was having difficulty turning the road corners on his road bike.  

Bennett finished the last three laps set aside for running, which he held at a steady pace. 

Narrow defeat had not disheartened Doody into stopping training for harder races. 

“I am training two half Iron Mans in Geelong and Cairns, one in February and the other in June. 

“I have got to talk Leon into signing for something,” Doody said. 

Brayden Nicholson followed Doody more than three minutes later with a time of 31 mins and 16 seconds. 

The first woman to cross the line was Lucy Richardson, with a time of 32.16. 

“It was hot out there but I think I did pretty well,” she said, shortly after the race. 

“The run was better for me, running was my favourite leg. I was able to compete it without stopping.”