Flora Duffy may seek medical advice in the hope of uncovering an explanation for her sudden and dramatic loss of form — as the 19-year-old finished a hugely disappointing 24th out of 26 finishers at the Des Moines BG World Cup triathlon in Iowa yesterday.

After failing to complete the World Cup race in Madrid two weeks ago, the young triathlon star said earlier this week that she was determined to put in a much stronger showing in Des Moines — her last race before the challenge of the Pan Am Games next month.

But once again Duffy, ranked 19 in the world, was alarmingly below her best in the swelteringly hot conditions, emerging from the 1.2 kilometre swim somewhere near the back of the pack in a time of 21 minutes and three seconds.

Looking uncomfortable on the bike, the Island’s female athlete of the year finished the 40K ride some eight minutes behind the leaders before struggling once again on the 5K run — usually her strongest suit — completing the Olympic-distance triathlon in a (relatively mediocre) two hours, 19 minutes and 54 seconds. Speaking from Iowa last night, Duffy’s father Charles said both he and his daughter were at a loss to explain why the former Warwick Academy student — who has a career best finish in World Cup races of fifth and has been tipped as a future Olympic champion — was suddenly not producing the goods.

“She’s extremely disappointed — she certainly expects a lot more of herself,” he said.

“A lot of what happens from here on will be determined by what her coach in the UK thinks, but we’re getting to the point now where we might have to get the doctors involved and get a full medical done to see whether there is anything wrong in that department. She just doesn’t have it at the moment and we’re not entirely sure why. This loss of form is just bizarre — even more bizarre than her sudden rise to prominence.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to her in detail about it, but we’re certainly going to have to have a re-think because she is way below her best.

“She’s still very young and while she’s pretty much stopped growing her body is still maturing in many ways, which could have something to do with it. But to be honest I just don’t know.

“She was near the back of the field for pretty much the whole race. Now there were 49 starters and only 26 finished, which gives you an idea about how hot it was and the field included something like 13 out of the top 15 female triathletes in the world.

“But even still we know Flora can more than compete with them when firing on all cylinders, but for some reason she’s just not producing right now.”

Duffy now has around a month to get to the bottom of the problem before the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — a race she has pinpointed as the main focus of her season.