BEIJING-bound Flora Duffy says she is not downhearted after coming in 19th in Hamburg World Cup Triathlon last weekend.

Duffy, who started well last year, before exhaustion destroyed her later performances, said she had been feeling weary before the German event because an intense training schedule.

She finished with a time of two hours and 12 minutes in Hamburg and told the Mid-Ocean News: "I had a pretty good swim, came out where I wanted to but I wasn't feeling very well at all.

"It was pretty much a big training session really.

"I just kind of got through it ¿ it wasn't a great result. But training has been going well and it was just an off day.

"Going into Hamburg I was pretty tired because I have been training pretty intensely but it's all aiming for Beijing."

Duffy's race at the Olympics will be staged on August 18 and her ranking is now 73 in the world.

Asked if her health woes were behind her Duffy said: "I still don't know what I had before. I was never diagnosed with anything but I have changed things around and I am feeling much better ¿ the two weeks previous to Hamburg I had really good races."

Duffy will have some precautionary blood tests ahead of the trip to China this summer.

Bermuda's Female Athlete of the Year also had a rough time last month when she fell off her bike during the Under-23 World Championships in Canada and had a disappointing 17th-place finish.

But she is not letting her ill luck get her down. She said: "You have to keep your confidence high because everything is aiming for Beijing."

Duffy heads off on Monday for a two-week training camp in Montpellier, France to prepare for the British Nationals in Wales on July 26.

She will be accompanied by a training partner Sam Hedge and coach Richard Brady.

"It's where the French national team train so I will train with a few of them and it's a different environment which also makes you work harder."

It will be hot there so it will be useful to get ready for the heat in China.

"I am pretty nervous about it all, it's really not very far away," she said of her Olympic race. "But it hasn't really hit me yet that I am going. I am sure it won't until I am on the plane going to Beijing and I get my uniform. It is exciting . . . and scary.

"For me it's a great experience. I am only 20-years-old, this is my first Olympics. I don't have any expectations of pulling out some amazing race. I just hope to go there and do my best."

And the Bermudian is glad she will be out of the country ahead of the race to ease the pressure from local well wishers.

"There will be pressure on me anyway. I put pressure on myself," she said.

With the Opening Ceremony being staged on August 8 ¿ 10 days before her race ¿ Duffy said she is expecting a bit of culture shock in China.

"I have been there before I raced there. To be honest I wasn't too keen on the culture and everything ¿ it's just so different there. It wasn't very clean.

"The language barrier makes it very difficult but it will be an interesting experience."

She is hoping to take some food with her but said the Americans had run into problems trying to ship provisions over there.

"I think it is a case of doing your best with what you have got."

But she said the following Olympics ¿ London in 2012 ¿ is her main aim.

And she thinks a third or even a fourth Olympic appearance is possible if everything goes well.

"There are still some people racing at the age of 36. It depends how I hold out," Duffy added.

The triathlon at the Olympics will be staged in the Ming Tomb Reservoir, also known as Shisanling Reservoir along with the roads surrounding the area. It is in the Changping District of Beijing.

The swim leg will be held in the Shisanling Reservoir which is in the the Jiu Long Amusement Park. The transition area is set on a purposely-built platform at the base of the dam.

The platform will also hold the cycling and run legs both of which lap through this point before continuing behind the dam.

A large spectator stand, to hold 10,000, is set on the slope of the dam above the platform to give views of the swim, transition, lap and finish.