Flora Duffy finished seventeenth in the elite women’s race at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Chicago yesterday.

Despite having what she called a ‘tough day’, Duffy’s finish was enough to see her end the ITU season in seventh place, her highest ranking in the competition.

“Tough day. But the silver lining I finished 7th overall on the series. Best series finish ever. Excited for 2016!” Duffy tweeted afterwards.

The Bermuda triathlete completed the course in 1hr 58min 24sec, some 2:48 behind winner Gwen Jorgensen.

Non Stanford and Vicky Holland, from Britain, finished second and third respectively.

Duffy had seemed set for a high finish, having come out of the water in second place in 17:52, and at the front of a pack of thirteen athletes who were separated by just two-hundreths of a second after the bike.

However, by the end of the first lap of the run, Duffy had dropped to ninth, 20 seconds behind the leaders and that gap only increased over the next two laps.

Jorgensen eventually won in 1:55:36, with Stanford finishing in 1:56:05, and Holland in 1:56:20.

Duffy will now turn her attention to defending her title at the XTerra Triathlon World Championships on November 1.

In the junior women’s race Bermuda youngster Erica Hawley finished 44th in a time of 1:05:41, some 8:13 behind winner Laura Lindemann of Germany, who came home in 57:28. Lindemann finished more than 30 seconds ahead of Taylor Knibb, from the United States, with Lotte Miller of Norway third in 58:39.