'I am on a high'

FRIDAY, MAY 11: Flora Duffy’s pursuit of her Olympic spot continues today when she competes in the ITU World Triathlon race in San Diego.

Duffy has had a dream week in winning in Mexico over the weekend, but Friday’s race promises to be tougher as it will serve as the US Olympic Trials.

She told the Bermuda Sun about her history-making triumph in Mexico: “I have never won a race that big so I am certainly on a high but it was hard to really appreciate the win as I knew I was racing four days later in San Diego.”

The 2008 Olympian said: “The win has helped my confidence a lot though, which is the main thing.”

Duffy said even though she has already qualified for an Olympics, World Championships and had top 10 finishes, she is very hard on herself “because you have a few awesome results but there are also the bad results” which then takes a bite out of the previous successes.

She added that after the bad results “people like to voice their negative opinions towards you sometimes” which also eats into her psyche.

It is the first time the ITU is having a race in San Diego and Duffy said it appears the bike course is fairly flat with two 180 degree turns. 

This is the first time having an ITU race in San Diego.

“We are racing right on the coast so the wind will be a major factor. This is not really that great of a course for me.”

She said besides most of the field from the Mexico ITU race many of the best women from the world will be in the field.

“Plus it is also the US Olympic trials so it’ll be a hard race.”