Australia's Maxine Seear has continued her fine year by taking out the women's title in the World Cup triathlon series in Japan.

The Queenslander was the selectors' choice in February to complete the three-woman Australian team for the Athens Games alongside Loretta Harrop and Rina Hill.

She overcame a 36-second deficit against Michelle Dillon of Britain on the final lap in the run before outsprinting her in the home straight in a thrilling finish to clock 2hr 25s.

Dillon was second in 2:00:36, followed by Japan's Kiyomi Niwata who was third in 2:01:16.

Bevan Docherty of New Zealand captured his first win in the series after a shoulder-to-shoulder battle against Dimitri Gaag of Kazakhstan on the last lap of the 10-kilometre final running section.

Docherty crossed the finish line in 1:48:32.

Gaag came in second in 1:48:51, ahead of Britain's Paul Amey in 1:49:09 and Andrew Johns in 1:49:22.

Docherty was in 12th place, 20 seconds behind leader Cyrille Mazure of France in the first 1.5 kilometre swimming session and 16 seconds behind him at sixth at the start of the final running section.

Docherty, 27, previously finished runner-up three times in the World Cup series, including one at Gamagori, Japan, in 2002.

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