Flora Duffy’s status as one of the world’s top female triathletes has again earned her an invitation to the lucrative end-of-season Island House Invitational.

Organisers yesterday announced their preliminary start list for the three-day non-drafting triathlon stage race, set for October 28 to 30 in the Bahamas. The unique race format brings stars from all of triathlon’s distances, from ITU to Ironman, together for unique head-to-head matchups.

The event offers a $500,000 prize purse, making it no surprise that several top names will choose to cap off their 2016 season in paradise.

Gwen Jorgensen, the Olympic gold medal favourite will return to defend her 2015 title, while the men’s side will see a new champion as Javier Gomez continues to recover from surgery.

Competitors will again compete over three days but this time in various non-drafting events, a departure from last year’s draft-legal racing.

Organisers hope this will make for an even more exciting matchup and level the playing field between short and long-course competitors. This year, the Island House Triathlons will feature an elimination format. Forty athletes will compete over the first two days of the event, but only ten men and ten women will remain for the final day of racing when the champions will be decided.