Duffy shines again in San Diegio

Make text smaller Make text larger

Bermuda’s Flora Duffy followed up her recent win at the Huatulco ITU Triathlon World Cup with another strong showing at yesterday’s ITU World Triathlon San Diego.

The Olympic-bound triathlete completed the 1.5K swim, 40K bike ride and 10K run in a combined time of two hours and 46 seconds to finish sixth in a star-studded field of more than 50 athletes.

Duffy’s time in San Diego was faster than her time in Mexico last weekend.

The past Female Athlete of the Year arrived in San Diego confident of a top 20 finish but ultimately exceeded her own expectations by far.

“Going in I thought a top 20 would be great because there were so many good runners here that are faster than me,” Duffy told The Royal Gazette. “So to get a group of eight away on the bike and for us to work as well as we did and then to run with the top three girls that are potential medallists at the Olympics was cool.

“It was definitely cool to be running with that calibre of athletes and was definitely a huge result for me. And then to back it up particualry after last weekend’s win and hard effort was just huge for me. I’m very happy some of the momentum from last weekend carried over.

“That was just a good result because there were a lot of big names out there so that was huge. This was a huge field so a top ten is stellar and I’m super happy with the way the race played out.

“The conditions were perfect, it was like mid 70s and a breezy so the conditions were perfect. There was no extreme heat or nothing like that.”

Duffy managed a top ten finish despite experiencing weariness from competing five days earlier in Mexico where she won a maiden Elite Women’s title at a World Cup event.

“My legs were definitely a little tired on the start on the bike,” she said. “We were really pushing the pace the first couple of laps so it was hard.

“Once I got a few laps in my legs felt a bit better but they were definitely tired and I just tried to ignore that and focused on racing.”

Having already qualified for July’s Olympics in the UK, the University of Colorado student has opted against competing at ITU World Triathlon Madrdi in Spain later this month to prepare for bigger and better things.

“I don’t need to do that race so I would rather stay in Boulder (Colorado) and start my preparation for London,” Duffy said.

England’s Helen Jenkins won yesterday’s event in a time of one hour, 58 minutes and 20 seconds with Australia’s Erin Densham and American Laura Bennett rounding off the podium finishers.

Make text smaller Make text larger

Take Our Poll