Flora Duffy has revealed she picked up a cold just days before her disappointing World Championship Series debut in Madrid at the weekend.The 21-year-old triathlete failed to finish in the Spanish capital, and admitted on her Twitter account hours later that her body had “failed” her.Yesterday she shed more light on her DNF, believing she had picked up a cold while travelling between races.She warmed up for the Madrid race by finishing seventh in the Capital of Texas Triathlon Championships in Austin, Texas, where she reckoned she caught the bug.“(It) Sucks. I had not been feeling very well in the days leading up to the race and on race day just didn’t have the legs,” said Bermuda’s top female triathlete.“The Madrid course is really hard so you have to be at 100 percent if you want to be in the race.“I was not. I picked something up, a coldish sort of thing, on my way back from Austin (Texas) and flying the next day to Madrid just made it worse.”The Olympic hopeful had been looking for a solid performance in the picturesque Casa de Campo Park in central Madrid, after making the start list for the first time in the Championship Series.She added: “I thought I would feel better in time to race and had to take my chances because it is so difficult to get into these races.“I went for it and it didn’t work out.“On a positive note I had a decent swim and came out of the water well placed so if I was healthy I would have been on track for a great race. Never mind.”Duffy plans to compete in a World Cup race in Edmonton, Canada on July 10.n Nikki Butterfield wife of Bermuda triathlete Tyler produced an encouraging triathlon in Darmstadt, Germany to finish second at the Darmstadt 5i50 behind winner Radka Vodickova.The winner finished in a time of two hour, four minutes, two seconds, while Butterfield, in her first race since having a baby, finished in 2:05 09.Butterfield, competing in her first triathlon since have a child, was in second place after the swim by some three minutes, but managed to reel Vodickova in on the run, wiping the lead“I have to admit I surprised myself on the weekend,” said Butterfield, a former world-class cyclist.“Everyone says you are stronger after having a baby but with such low weekly volumes I thought I had no chance of being up there.“Looking back at the last few weeks leading in there were certainly sessions that I started to show signs of getting back into some kind of form, but being in contention for the win was not what I was expecting at all.“In that last kilometre I lost just over one minute, there wasn’t anything I could do to go any faster.”Having one triathlon under her belt, Butterfield’s next challenge will be at the Klagenfurt 5i50 in Austria next weekend, before –heading to Philadelphia to compete.