'This was totally unexpected'

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14: “No way.”

That’s one expert’s opinion on Flora Duffy’s chances of finishing in the top 10 at the Triathlon World Championships on the same course in Beijing she flamed out on the during the 2008 Olympics.

The expert?

Flora Duffy.

The young triathlete just had the greatest performance of her career, finishing ninth at the star-studded Triathlon World Championships.

She said: “That was a great race. If I had the same race and finished 25th I still would have been pleased but to have finished ninth, it was just amazing.

“If someone had told me I was going to finish ninth, I would have told them ‘no way’.

Shock

“After Beijing in 2008 I stopped racing for two years and for the first six months of those two years I wasn’t training. I was at home working and not being an athlete.

“To go back here and come in this position has taken a lot of work — and it’s a shock, but I’m very proud to have come back and do as well as I did.”

Because her world ranking, Duffy was at the far end of the pontoon for the start of the swim.

“I was expecting to get bashed and pulled under, that ended up not happening and I had clear water to the first buoy.

I was very aware where I was in the water and I knew where I needed to get to. I kept seeing little openings and worked my way up to the front pack.

“When we came out of the water and got on the bike, a couple of the girls realized there were no Australians, and other big names like Paula Finley that were not with our group, so the first two laps we were just flying to put as much time between us and them as possible.

“The bike was definitely hard. There’s a huge hill in Beijing we had to go up six times.

“I sat in, but also did a few pulls at the front. I tried to conserve as much as I could because I knew I needed to get off the bike as fast as I could.”

Duffy lost some time in the transition as she struggled getting her shoes on and came out near the back of the pack.

But it was game on as she passed several runners in front of her while not letting anyone catch her.

“I was a lot more confident than I was in the past with my running because I did a University of Colorado cross country race. There were a bunch of girls on the varsity team in the race and I beat a few of them. That definitely boosted my confidence because they are good runners.

“I kept going the best as I could but it was pretty terrifying because I had Emma Snowsill, Emma Moffatt and Emma Jackson chasing me down, but I managed to hold them off and felt great.”

Duffy said it has boosted her confidence and she now knows she can compete with the best in the world and hold her own.

“This is inspiring. I’ve finished ninth (at a World Championships) and I’m sure I can do better.

The result has shot her up the world rankings and she is now ranked 37th.

It also helps give her Olympic campaign a big boost. It doesn’t guarantee her a spot but does supply valuable points to count to becoming the first Bermudian to compete in two Olympics as a triathlete.

She has a busy end of season planned with three races in a five-week time frame as she competes in an ITU race in Mexico, then the Pan Am Games two weeks later and then another ITU race in Colombia two weeks after that.