Australia’s two-time world triathlon champion Emma Moffatt dominated the national sprint-distance championships in Geelong, winning by more than a minute.

Frenchman Laurent Vidal outsprinted British rival Will Clarke to take out the men’s race ahead of New Zealander Tony Dodds on Sunday, while Queenslander Drew Box won the Australian title with his fourth place.

Box is still an under-23 competitor and it was the best result of his five-year triathlon career.

Moffatt is an early nomination for the Australian Olympic team and the Beijing Games bronze medallist was outstanding in her first race of the year.

It was her second national sprint title after she also won at Geelong last year.

Moffatt shared the lead with New Zealander Teresa Adam from the 750m swim to the end of the 20km cycle and then broke away on her own at the start of the 5km run.

Moffatt won in one hour one minute and 35 seconds and German Anne Haug was next in 1:02:43.

British triathlete Liz Blatchford was third and Australian Erin Densham recovered from a poor swim and bike to post the fastest run of the women’s race and take fourth.

Densham, a Beijing Olympian, hopes to join Moffatt on the three-woman Olympic team.

It was a great day for the Australian young guns in the men’s race, with under-23 competitor Aaron Royle finishing fifth.

But the Olympic hopefuls had mediocre races, as Chris McCormack and Courtney Atkinson suffered 15-second penalties for rules violations during their transitions.

McCormack finished seventh and Atkinson was 10th.

Brendan Sexton, another London hopeful, had to pull out when he had a mechanical problem during the bike leg.

While the championships will not have a massive bearing on the selection process for the Olympics, McCormack had noted pre-race that everyone would want a good result at Geelong, particularly given the strength of the field.