Dame Flora Duffy Set To Compete In Hamburg
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Dame Flora Duffy returns to action in the World Triathlon Championship Series when she competes in Hamburg this weekend.
Duffy withdrew from the previous WTCS round in Montreal in favour of racing in the Subaru Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant, which was her final chance to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in St George, Utah, in October.
However, Duffy was unable to take to the start line in Quebec because her bike, which should have been loaded on a direct flight from Denver to Montreal, failed to arrive.
The 34-year-old finished seventh in her previous WTCS race in Leeds last month and is fifth in the elite women’s rankings with 2,482 points. Georgia Taylor-Brown, of Britain, leads the rankings with 3,850 points, having competed in one more event than the Bermudian.
Duffy has fond memories of Hamburg, having first raced there in a World Cup race in 2006, placing ninth, and won a world series race in the German city in 2017 by a record margin for a sprint-distance triathlon.
She posted photographs from both races on her social media today.
“Since it is WTCS Hamburg race this week, I’d thought I would throw it back to my first time racing in Hamburg all the way back in 2006!,” Duffy wrote on Instagram.
“It was my second World Cup [wearing number 82 lol], and I was 18 years old.
“The weekend before, I finished second in the junior world championships in Lausanne. It was thrilling to line up in the elite women’s race. I swam back of the front pack, got dropped on the bike [I wasn’t strong yet!] and ran 34:11 to finish ninth.
“Eleven years later, I won. I soloed off the front on the bike.
“Excited to line up this weekend as the reigning Olympic and world champion. How cool is that? I never could have imagined that in 2006. Lots of ups and downs along the way. Progress is never a straight line.”
