Flora Duffy continued her impressive start to the season with a comfortable win in the Xterra South African Championships yesterday.

Duffy came home in a time of 2hr, 45min 27sec, well ahead of Mari Rabie, who was second and Carina Wasle in third.

The time was considerably faster than the one she set in winning the same event last year, when she won in 2:57:07. This time around Duffy completed the 1.5K swim in 18:47, the 28K mountain bike in 1:30:18 and the 12.5K run in 54:07.

The Bermuda traithlete said that she was “blown away” by the win, which was her third in a row, following on from victories in the Philippines and an ITU Sprint Triathlon, also in South Africa.

“Having raced the past two weekends, I was actually tired coming into today’s race,” Duffy said. “I had a great swim, but at the start of the mountain bike my legs just weren’t there.

“I’m always told that I don’t have to feel good in order to go fast, I just kept reminding myself of that.

“The run was tough, but this time round [boyfriend] Dan [Hugo] was out on the route giving me splits, that was nice.

“Winning here is really special as South Africa has become my second home.”