Julie Dibens secured Britain’s fourth major triathlon world title this year when she claimed her third consecutive XTERRA world crown on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The off-road version of the multi-discipline sport sees competitors swim 1.5km in the ocean followed by 30km on a mountain bike and finish with an 11km trail run.

Though Dibens, who was part of Britain’s Olympic triathlon squad in Athens, professes her main focus is on road racing, she nonetheless once more proved she is unrivalled in the discipline, even if for the first time in three years she found herself trailing, albeit briefly.

Coming out of the water Dibens, who hails from Salisbury but is now based full-time in Boulder, Colorado, was just over half a minute behind swim specialist Christine Jeffery. It was not to last.

Within five minutes Dibens had hauled Jeffery in and passed her for a lead she was never to relinquish. Half way through the bike leg she had extended her lead to four minutes and was up among the leading 15 male competitors.

By final transition the gap had increased to over five minutes and her finishing time of 2 hrs 26 mins 42 secs was seven and a half minutes quicker than second placed Lesley Paterson from Scotland.

Dibens becomes the first pro-athlete to win the title three years in a row.

“I felt good all day except for that last stretch of the run on the lava,” said Dibens.

“I was able to ride in control and run smart. I’m delighted to be up here on the podium again and to win this race three times in a row is really special.”

Dibens reserved praise for her fellow competitors, claiming that on a less forgiving course Paterson could have “kicked her ass”.

“To me, Melanie [McQuaid, the third placed Canadian] and Jamie Whitmore are still the queen’s of XTERRA,” said Dibens.

Lesley Paterson finished in the top three in all three championship XTERRAs she entered this season and in producing the fastest run split of the day, 49 mins 50 secs, gave further credence to the sense that she is a coming force in the sport.

“I was real consistent on the bike today and was able to stay with Shonny [Vanlandingham, who finished fifth] until the plunge when she took off,” said Paterson.

“I worked so hard on the bike this year and it really paid off, and I’m really excited about my finish today.”

Dibens victory came over the same weekend as Jodie Swallow claimed the ITU long course World Championship title in Perth, the fourth British woman to do so in successive years.

Earlier this season Alistair Brownlee won every race he entered in the Olympic distance triathlon World Championship Series, including Hyde Park in London and the Grand Final on Australia’s Gold Coast, while Chrissie Wellington is yet to be beaten over the Ironman distance and broke the course record in winning her third consecutive world title in Kona this month.

With Hollie Anvil the reigning under-23 world champion at the Olympic distance and Sophie Coleman the world junior title holder in duathlon, where the swimming stage is replaced with a second running leg, triathlon is fast becoming a huge British success story.

In the overall standings in Maui, Eneko Llanos of Spain finished in a time of 2 hrs 37 mins 22 secs, almost a minute ahead of ahead of Nicolas Lebrun of France.

Llanos thus claimed his third XTERRA World Championship and his first since winning back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.