Teenage triathlon sensation Flora Duffy leaves for the Dominican Republic this morning to take part in her first competitive race of the 2007 season.

Bermuda’s Female Athlete of the Year has high hopes of breaking into the world’s top 25 in her first full year as a professional triathlete after exploding onto the international scene in 2006 with an eighth-placed finish at the Commonwealth Games and two top-ten finishes in World Cup events — the latter being the most prestigious races in the sport along with the Olympics.

Duffy hasn’t competed in a triathlon since November’s Cancun World Cup race in Mexico, where she placed an astonishing sixth.

But she now heads to this Sunday’s ITU Pan-American Cup feeling fit and strong after a long winter of training at Kelly College in the UK.

“I’ve got a few good months of hard training under my belt now and this race in the Dominican Republic should hopefully be a perfect warm-up for the upcoming season,” said Duffy, who is currently ranked 39 in the world and is almost certain of a berth at the Beijing Olympics next year.

“Coming in the top 15 of all the World Cup races I compete in is definitely a big goal and with that I’d like to break into the top 25 in the world. Last year I really only started competing in World Cup races half-way through the season, so this is my first full year and I’m really looking forward to it.

“I worked very hard in the off-season. I did a lot of base work, long runs and bike rides and plenty of strength and core stability work. In fact, I’m probably feeling stronger than at any point in my life.”

While she was pushed into silver medal position at last year’s World Junior Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland by Canadian Kirsten Sweetland, no other teenager came close to matching Duffy’s performances at a senior level and there’s a strong sense in triathlon circles that she’s got what it takes to one day become a world champion.

And one year on from her first eye-catching performance at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Duffy admitted yesterday that she was no longer fazed by the prospect of taking on the world’s best.

“It’s still a bit nerve-racking racing against all the world’s top female triathletes but I’m a lot more comfortable in my own skin now at the top level and if everything goes according to plan and I stay clear of injury, I’m hoping 2007 will be a good year,” she said.

“I wasn’t originally expecting to compete in this race in the Dominican Republic, but I got a call from Patty Petty (Bermuda Triathlon Association) around three weeks ago asking me to go to represent Bermuda and it just so happens that it fits in well with my schedule.

“I don’t know a lot of girls in the race because it’s basically the level below World Cup standard. But the winner qualifies automatically for the Pan-Am Games in Brazil later this year, which is obviously a massive competition, so there’s a big incentive to do well. Hopefully I can, but I don’t really know who I’ll be up against and there’s always a possibility that there might be one or two dark horses in the field.”

The former Warwick Academy student has been back at home for just over a week now on her Easter holidays and after returning from the Caribbean she’ll head straight for a ten-day training camp near San Marino, Italy with her coach from Kelly College.

Her first World Cup race of the year will be in Lisbon, Portugal on May 5.