Triathlon star Flora Duffy heads into her final World Cup race before the Pan Am Games knowing an assured performance will provide the perfect tonic to boost her ailing confidence.

Duffy, the current darling of Bermudian sport, makes her return to top-flight competition in Iowa on Sunday — the first since failing to finish at the Madrid BG World Cup.

A fortnight has passed since her fatigue-plagued display and Duffy insists the chastening experience is now firmly behind her as she sets her radar on the forthcoming Pan-Am Games in Brazil next month.

The 19-year-old has earmarked the showpiece event as the top priority on her sporting calendar and hopes her date in Des Moines, Iowa, will set her up nicely.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks to recharge my batteries since my disappointment in Madrid and that performance is behind me now — hopefully it’s just a freak.” she said.

“I’ve tried not to dwell on it too much and looked solely on the races ahead of me starting off with Des Moines.

“Preparations have been going well and I’m feeling fresh so I’m looking forward to a good race.”

With the Pan Am Games just a matter of weeks away, Duffy concedes she already has one eye on the championships, which she has such high hopes for.

She has set aside a week’s intensive training and two weeks rest before the games to ensure her body is in optimum condition.

“The Pan Am Games are my immediate priority now and a good performance in Iowa will really boost my confidence and make me feel mentally stronger.

“I have to make sure I’m in great shape for Pan Am to give myself the best possible chance of performing well — I really want to do well there.”

The world’s 19th ranked female triathlete spent this week grooving her way into form in Bermuda to break up her journey from the UK.

But it hasn’t all been pounding the pavements and clocking in the miles on her bike, with Duffy ensuring she made time to relax with her family.

“It’s quite a long flight from the UK to Iowa,” said the former Warwick Academy Student.

“So I decided to spend some time back home to finish my preparations and see my family.”

Having taken the professional triathlon scene by storm in 2006 with a series of scintillating displays, many predicted a tougher second season for the starlet who is widely tipped to become one of the top competitors in her sport.

But she helped allay any fears she may succumb to a bout of ‘second season syndrome’ by starting the season with a career best finish in the 2007 World Cup curtain-raiser in Lisbon in May.

That made her performance in Madrid all the more perplexing when fatigue set in at the start of the bike course, with a steep hill seeming to drain the energy out her normally reliable body. Flora had emerged from the 1.2 kilometre swim in the Spanish capital well positioned among the leading pack and ahead of world number one and eventual winner Vanessa Fernandez of Portugal.

She believed her withdrawal may have brought on because of school-induced stress and the amount of travelling she had been doing due to her extensive race programme.