In what he admitted was one of the most complete races of his life, he set things up with a dominant bike leg, having exited the pool in second before finishing with a powerful burst during the five-kilometre run.

It was enough to give him victory by the best part of one-and-a-half minutes over Tom Hanrahan.

Stapley’s overall time was 52 minutes, 25 seconds.

Peta Cutler won the women’s long-course race soon after as she defeated Danielle Patterson, while Paddy Corcoran defeated Mark Windsor in a good finish to the men’s short course race, with only 15 seconds separating the duo.

Emily Watts led from start to finish to hold off Stacey Fish in the women’s short course.

After completing the women’s Tour Down Under earlier this week, Kirsten Howard rode the bike leg and completed the run as part of the winning team entry.

But the focus afterwards was on the quality of Stapley’s race.

“That was the best run leg I’ve had here in the Bathurst races for sure. I just felt comfortable and technique-wise I was able to push for the whole five kilometres. It was a pretty good show of my form,” he said.

“Usually my run is probably my weakest leg, so it is a great sign that it went as well as it did today.”

Initially the 17-year-old was stuck behind Zac Telfser during the swim leg, Telfser exiting the pool a little over 30 seconds clear of Stapley as he showed his class in the water.

It was always likely to be a temporary buffer, though, given Stapley’s speed on the bike, and within a kilometre of the start of the second leg, he was into the lead.

Telfser slipped back as Hanrahan also made up ground on the bike, and it was he who presented the biggest danger to the leader but he couldn’t take back enough ground.

Hanrahan finished nearly four minutes clear of Telfser in third.

“Zac has a very strong swimming background but I knew if I was close enough I’d have the speed on the bike to make up the gap. I got past him on Hereford Street and tried to pull a bit of a lead,” the winner explained.

“Tom was getting fairly close, I could see him in the background. Because I didn’t want to spend too much in the bike, it was tough to find a balance of how hard to go to make sure I still had a good lead.”

In the women’s race, Cutler dictated terms from the early stages and was never really headed, winning by almost 10 minutes.

In the men’s short course race, things were close from the end of the swim where the first four competitors were all into transition within a minute of one another, led by Corcoran.

Windsor was fourth by that stage but moved into second during the ride, the pair gapping their rivals by four minutes.

By the time he and Corcoran were in the final 200m of their run, there was little to separate them but Corcoran held on.

Earlier in the Boomers races, James Patterson won the long course race with Hayley Dalton winning the short course.