Teen triathlete Flora Duffy quashed any doubts about her ability to represent Bermuda at next year?s Commonwealth Games in Australia when she sliced an amazing nine minutes off the required qualifying time over the weekend.

Back from her studies in the west of England, where she recently finished second in the British Junior Duathlon Championships, Duffy competed in a dual Commonwealth/World Championship qualifying event at Clearwater where she capped a sizzling performance in the water and on the bike with a 37 minute, 41 second 10K run to place third overall, behind only winner Riaan Naude and second-placed Jamie Brown.

Veteran triathlete and coach Neil de Ste Croix described the performance as ?one of the best ever turned in by a local female triathlete.?

And Duffy herself was delighted with a finishing time (two hours and seven minutes) which she has only ever bettered once before on an Olympic course, in the UK in September.

?I?ve never performed really well on this particular course, so I guess I wanted to prove to myself I could do a good time,? said Duffy yesterday.

?I had a good swim, the bike was OK, but I was really pleased with the run. I?ve never run that fast in a 10K before, either in a triathlon or a road race.

Duffy finished Sunday?s race just over three minutes behind Brown and less than five minutes behind Naude, who is also hoping to represent Bermuda at the Games Down Under next March.

Naude clocked 2:02.38 and Brown 2:03.42.

It was the first time that Naude had made the qualifying time after missing out by a small margin earlier in the year and the third time for Brown, who has already been selected for Bermuda?s team, subject to the outcome of a Cayman Islands appeal to the Commonwealth Association regarding the inclusion of non-nationals for the Melbourne event.

Also in Sunday?s field was former Commonwealth Games competitor Karen Smith, who took part despite the fact she has only been training for the past two weeks following a horrific bike accident suffered during the World Triathlon Championships in Hawaii in October which was followed by an operation in late November to reset her broken nose.

She finished in a time of 2:22.43.

Smith is also expected to try and qualify for the Games prior to the January 29 cut-off date.

Veteran competitor Kent Richardson failed to make the standard, finishing in 2:11.22.

But the day belonged to Duffy, who thought she had previously qualified for the Games during an event in England only to find that questions were asked over the accuracy of the course.

From the gun it was clear that the youngster was on a mission to silence any doubters as she powered her way through the 1500 metres swim leg in an impressive 20 minutes and 23 seconds, almost a minute and a half clear of her nearest rival.

Despite a constant drizzle, the lack of wind made for fast conditions on the bike, with Duffy holding off Brown for a lap and a half of the three-lap course and the Naude brothers (Riaan and Evan), who teamed up in order to take full advantage of the draft legal format, for over two laps.

Brown and the Naude twins came into the second transition together with Brown exiting first followed by Riann. Evan was unable to run due to a torn calf muscle.

Duffy was in the transition and off the bike in fourth place.

Riaan, a former Front Street mile winner, again showed his running prowess by chasing down Brown and posting the fastest time of the day, 35:19 for the 10K run with Brown finishing in 36:35.

But Duffy put the icing on the cake with a blistering run of 37:41, showing that the last year and a half spent studying and training at Kelly College in Devon, under the watchful eye of one of the UK?s leading triathlon coaches, Rich Brady, and swimming director and former Commonwealth Games medallist and record holder, Robin Brew, has paid big dividends.