Bermuda's triathlon sensation Flora Duffy has been awarded a place in this summer's Beijing Olympics.

Duffy, who won the Sportswoman of the Year Award for the second successive year last week, is one of just two triathletes who have been given wild cards for the August Games, the International Olympic Association (IOC) confirmed yesterday.

The other is Syria's top male triathlete Omar Tayara.

According to a statement released by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) yesterday: "Duffy has shown tremendous promise on the ITU circuit."

"At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, she was a precocious 18-year old racing with the elite women and finished an impressive eighth place," said Libby Burrell, ITU Director of Sport Development.

"Later that year she was a silver medalist at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Lausanne.

"In 2007 Duffy raced to her best World Cup finish ever, a fifth place in Lisbon, Portugal.

"Flora has great potential. She had a hard second half of 2007 but this selection is just the motivation she needs to make sure 2008 is a wonderful year.

"Both Flora and Omar's selections will give them the inspiration they need to push on with their preparation and take the pressure off racing and exhausting budgets ahead of Beijing."

Duffy was almost guaranteed a spot in the Beijing spectacle due to her Olympic points total she has accumulated.

Her father, Charles, is optimistic she will do well in the build-up to the Games as well as at the Olympics itself.

"She was very pleased to get this opportunity, even though she was almost guaranteed a spot with the amount of points she has," Mr. Duffy said yesterday.

"But this comes as a welcome relief as she would have had to travel to Mexico in the upcoming weeks and try to qualify for the Games in that event.

"She is also recovering from a knee injury which she has had for almost three weeks now so any extra time she can get to let the injury heal is a bonus."

He next event is at Richard's Bay in South Africa on May 4 with the race being a World Cup event.

"She will be home for a few weeks to prepare for her upcoming events so she should be ready for what lies ahead."

According to the rules defined by the IOC Executive Board, no other National Olympic Committees (NOC) were eligible to receive invitation places in triathlon.

Both Duffy and Tayara must still meet the minimum eligibility criteria to compete in Beijing, which means both must be ranked in the top 125 of the ITU Olympic rankings.