Flora Duffy picked up where she left off last season in Portugal yesterday by producing yet another sensational performance to place a career-best fifth in the Lisbon BG World Cup triathlon.

Battling it out with the sport’s elite in front of a crowd of thousands in the Portuguese capital, the 19-year-old wonder-kid finished the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre bike ride and ten kilometre run in a time of two hours, six minutes and 46.6 seconds — a mere 17 seconds off a podium place and just over two minutes behind winner and world number one Vanessa Fernandez.

Having taken professional triathlon by storm in 2006 with a succession of impressive World Cup showings at the tender age of 18, it was already widely accepted that Bermuda was in possession of a breathtaking young athlete with the potential to become one of the top competitors in her sport.

That belief was only strengthened as a result of yesterday — though having spent the vast majority of the run in third place before fading slightly in the latter stages, there was still a small amount of disappointment palpable in her voice last night.

“Obviously I’m thrilled with a fifth place finish in a World Cup race, particularly as it was my first of the season and I’m not yet at peak fitness — but it might have been even better,” she said.

“I was in third place for most of the run, but I’d been pouring water all over myself and my shoes were absolutely soaked — so towards the end I was slipping out of them and I was finding it difficult to keep my pace up.

“To be fair there were some very strong runners behind me who overtook me near the end. I was a little tired, but I felt I might have been able to hold them off if it wasn’t for my shoes becoming so slippery. It’s only a little thing I know, but it can make a very big difference when you’re out there.

“But I can’t really complain. I didn’t know what to expect really going into this race because it was the first of the season and until you get out there you’re never really sure what level your fitness is at.

“So it definitely gives me a lot of confidence looking ahead to the rest of the season.”

The former Warwick Academy student emerged from the Atlantic alongside Fernandez having taken 18.55 minutes to complete the 1.5K swim around Lisbon harbour.

Then, sat at the rear of the front pack for most of the 40K bike ride, Duffy enjoyed a bit of good fortune by narrowly avoiding a major crash only metres behind her on the treacherous course to maintain her aggressive pursuit of the leaders.

“It was an absolutely huge crash involving around ten girls or more — I heard it behind me when it happened and thankfully I wasn’t in the middle of it,” she said.

“It was a very technical course and you had to be very careful around the bends, but I managed to hang in there with the lead pack. I didn’t feel too great on the first couple of laps to be honest and I was thinking ‘uh, oh, this is going to be a bad day’. But as time went on my legs started to come back to me and I got stronger and stronger.

“I probably came out of the second transition in around tenth — though it was difficult to tell because a whole bunch of us arrived at once — and then I passed quite a few people to get into third place before dropping off a bit at the end.”

Asked whether she now believed she could go on to win a World Cup race in only her second season competing in the professional ranks, Duffy insisted it would be a couple of years before she had a genuine chance of breaking the stranglehold that the Portuguese Fernandez and England’s Michelle Dillon (who finished second yesterday) currently have on the sport.

“I think I’ve got a good chance of getting on the podium maybe, but I’m nowhere near where I need to be to beat Vanessa and Michelle Dillon,” she said.

“You’ve got to bear in mind that those two do this full time and can train all the time while I have to divide my time between training and school.

“So they’re both a little stronger than me right now, but maybe in a year or two I’ll be able to get close to them.”

Duffy’s fifth-placed finish puts her in 16th position in the World Cup rankings.

She now heads to France this week to compete for her new professional team Poissy — the first of four sprint triathlons she has agreed to take part in this year.

Meanwhile, Duffy has decided to skip the next World Cup race in South Africa on May 13 because of her commitments in France and the excessive travelling that would be involved.

She will return to the World Cup scene in Madrid, Spain on June 3.

[bul] Riaan Naude lifted the Bermuda National Triathlon title at Clearwater yesterday, placing first in a field of 21.

Naude completed the 1500 metre swim, 40K bike and 10K run in two hours, five minutes and 35 seconds to beat second-placed Peter Mills (2:07.40) by more than two minutes.

Third overall and first female was Dee McMullen in 2:10.55 with sister Kim McMullen fourth in 2:13.25.

Andrew Davis, first out of the water in 23.01, had to settle for fifth overall in 2:15.33.