He broke away from the field at the start of the run to win in 1 hour 50min 20sec.

New Zealand's Kris Gemmell finished second, four seconds back, with Australian Courtney Atkinson rounding out the podium, finishing another four seconds behind.

"This feels absolutely amazing," Don said afterward.

"I felt great at the start of the run and just tried to hang on for the whole thing.

"I was really hurting to hold them off at the end."

Sixty-six men dove into the swim to start the fourth annual event, and to no one's surprise, the Russian duo of Alexander Brukhankov and Dmitry Polyansky moved right to the front.

Brukhankov led through the first of two swim loops, before Polyansky took over the lead on the second lap.

Polyansky, who is currently ranked second in the world, sprinted the final 100 metres to exit the water first and take the $5,000 (£3,433) swim prime.

A big group of 55 men came together on the first lap of the bike and continued to ride in a tight bunch through the first three laps.

The only earnest break attempt was made by New Zealand's Ryan Sissons, who rode solo for two laps before being swept back up by the group.

After a relatively slow ride, a group of over 50 men entered the second transition together, with Don and Gemmell the first to make it onto the run course.

Don immediately took off at a blistering pace, with Gemmell and Germany's Olympic champion Jan Frodeno trying to keep pace.

Don built a 20-second advantage over Frodeno after the first of four run laps, with Gemmell falling back into a chase pack that included countryman Bevan Docherty, Aussie Brad Kahlefeldt and American Jarrod Shoemaker.

Onto the final lap, Don still held a 20-second lead over Frodeno, but both were struggling and losing time to the chase pack.

In the end, the chasers were able to catch Frodeno, but they ran out of room before they could catch Don, and the Briton strode down the finishing chute with time to celebrate his $200,000 win.

"I knew the guys were closing hard, but when I saw I still had 20 seconds heading into that last lap, I thought I could do it," Don said.

Gemmell and Atkinson broke away from the chase group with only 800 metres to go and ran side-by-side down the finishing chute, with the Kiwi breaking away in the final strides to take second.

Atkinson rounded out the podium, earning his second podium finish in as many weeks after finishing second at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Madrid last weekend.

Australia's Emma Snowsill won the women's race, ahead of compatriot Emma Moffatt and Britain's Helen Jenkins.

The Olympic champion was more than a minute behind the leaders going into the 10 kilometres run, the final leg, but then posted the day's best split of 34min 05sec to cross the line 16 seconds ahead of Moffatt.

Snowsill said: "I was angry about my position after the bike, so I used that aggression.

"I wanted to reel in as many girls as I could.

Severe thunderstorms throughout the morning gave way to calm conditions for the start of the race.

As expected, Americans Sarah McLarty and Hayley Peirsol broke away on the first of two laps on the swim, as the pair battled for the $5,000 (£3,433) swim prime. 

McLarty was the first to exit the water and earn the bonus, topping Peirsol with a hard sprint in the final 100 metres of the swim.

McLarty and Peirsol set off on the bike with a one-minute advantage on the chase pack, which contained a number of the pre-race favourites, including Americans Sarah Haskins and Laura Bennett, Moffatt, and Daniela Ryf of Switzerland.

World number one Barbara Riveros Diaz, of Chile, and Snowsill entered the transition in the third group, another minute behind the chasers.

The pair of Americans held off the chase pack of 20 women throughout the entire 40km bike leg, losing only a handful of seconds on each of the eight laps.

Peirsol and McLarty exited the second transition with a 40 second gap on the chase pack, but the lead did not last long.

Snowsill exited transition another 30 seconds back of the chase group, alongside current world number one Riveros Diaz.

A small pack of six women broke away from the first chase group to take the lead on the first lap of the run.

The group included Moffatt and Jenkins but, by the third of the four laps, Snowsill had moved to the front of the field.

Snowsill, who turns 29 next Tuesday (June 15), said: "I knew I had a big gap to make up when I got to transition, but I just started reeling them in one by one and before I knew it I could see the lead group."

She broke the tape in 1:59:35, earning the six-figure prize for the second time in her career.

Moffatt's runner-up finish earned her $50,000 (£34,000) with Jenkins claiming $25,000 (£17,000) for finishing third.

Jenkins' team-mates Jodie Stimpson and Liz Blatchford finished seventh and ninth respectively.