Duffy Wins 5th XTERRA World Championship
Bermuda’s Flora Duffy raced to victory in the XTERRA World Championship in Maui, becoming the first elite athlete to win five XTERRA World Championships.
An XTERRAPlanet.com story said, “Bradley Weiss from South Africa and Flora Duffy from Bermuda captured the 24th XTERRA World Championship off-road triathlon elite titles on a beautiful day at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua on Maui’s northwest coast this morning.
“It’s the second title in three years for Weiss, who won it in 2017 and was second last year, and the unprecedented fifth XTERRA World Championship crown for Duffy, who won four straight from 2014-2017 before sitting out last year due to injury. Both earned $20,000 for their respective victories, their share of the $100,000 elite purse.
“In the women’s race it was Duffy all day long with the fastest swim, bike, and run times to take the tape in 2:49:23. With the win Duffy becomes the first elite – male or female – to win a 5th XTERRA World Championship, and she’s now won her last 12 XTERRA races and 17 of 20 since 2013.”
Photo courtesy of XTERRA:
“She had the fastest swim by over a minute, the fastest bike split by almost six minutes and the fastest run time by about three minutes. This is especially impressive given that she spent most of this year focusing on getting healthy after suffering a tear in her post-tibial tendon, which attaches the bones in her calf muscle to the bones on the inside of her foot.”
“Getting healthy has been the main thing this year,” said Duffy, after the race. “So it’s great to win the XTERRA World title in a year that has otherwise been quite disappointing. This is a huge, lovely highlight to end my year with.”
“Duffy came out of the water with the elite men’s leaders and was third overall heading into the swim to bike transition.”
“I felt pretty good coming out of the water and tried not to extend myself too much,” she said. “On the bike, I knew I had to make the most of that first, three-mile climb because after that, the course gets technical, and that’s not really my strength.”
“Despite the slick conditions, Duffy opened up a significant lead before the bike the run transition.”
“During the run, I tried not to allow myself to say, ‘I’m going to win this,’ because this is XTERRA and anything can happen. However, once I got off the beach and headed towards the finish, it was a great feeling to know that I was going to win.
“It was stressful coming into XTERRA this year, because no one has ever won five XTERRA World titles. It’s a great feeling to be the first person to do that.”
Congrats Flora!!! You rock keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see you compete again on home soil.
Go Flora!
Just an incredible comeback! Congratulations!