Bermuda?s leading young female triathlete, Flora Duffy, failed by the narrowest of margins to retain her British National Biathlon Under-19 age group title in Sheffield, England over the weekend.

In Duffy?s age group, the biathlon comprised a three kilometre cross-country run and a 200 metre pool swim which, unlike in the triathlon, took place non-consecutively. Points were awarded based upon times achieved.

And the teenage Bermudian, currently attending school in the west of England, lost out only on a tiebreak.

Things appeared to be going well for Duffy after the run as she is also regarded as a strong swimmer.

She clocked 11 minutes, 31.02 seconds on the cross-country course, worth 956 points. It was the second fastest time of the day behind top British junior runner Nikki Hamblin, a silver medallist in the 1500 metres at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games.

Significantly last year?s Under-17 national biathlon champion and top ranked junior British pentathlete, Montana Jones, had the third best run, eight seconds and 32 points behind Duffy.

The former Front Street Mile champion then managed two minutes, 18.70 seconds in the pool, a disappointing three seconds off her personal best. But that time was beaten by only three other girls.

One of them was Jones who swam 2.16.32, worth exactly 32 points more than Duffy?s time.

With the two competitors? points totals equal, Jones was awarded the title because she had the third fastest run and second fastest swim to Duffy?s second and fourth respectively.

Duffy will now focus her training on next year?s Commonwealth Games Triathlon in Melbourne, Australia, for which she hopes to be selected after comfortably beating the qualifying mark in late September.

Included in that training will be a 20 kilometre swim for charity next Monday.