There is one triathlete who stands out these days when you talk about short-distance racing: Flora Duffy. The athlete from Bermuda just won the Commonwealth Games Triathlon and showed once again why she is the rightful Olympic Champion.
Flora Duffy and Beth Potter were already considered the biggest favorites in advance and Potter took that role seriously; the British woman immediately took the lead in the water – with Duffy at her feet – and she did not relinquish that lead during the swim. After 9:20 minutes, she had finished her 750 meters and then all the favorites came in short succession into T1.
After a good transition, it was Potter who briefly got away from the other ladies, but behind her a group formed with Duffy, Sophie Coldwell, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Amy Legault. The four ladies needed no more than a kilometer to catch Potter and so a front group of five was formed. After the first five kilometers on the bike, this leading group had a lead of just under half a minute over a huge chasing group.
In the second of four bike laps – all the athletes had to bike 20 kilometers in total – Duffy accelerated during a small climb. That acceleration was so powerful that only Coldwell could follow and the other three women had to leave a gap of a few seconds. After ten kilometers in total, Duffy and Coldwell’s lead had already increased to sixteen seconds over the three chasers, and the chasing group behind them followed at over fifty seconds.
The last ten kilometers on the bike continued to be positive for Duffy and Taylor-Brown; the two worked well together and saw their lead in T2 grow to 58 seconds over Coldwell, Legault and Potter, who in turn had lost a lot of time and saw the chasing group get a lot closer. Meanwhile, Duffy was already running away from Taylor-Brown in the first few meters of the run.
During the run, there was really no stopping Duffy, who saw her lead grow larger constantly. And even though Taylor-Browne couldn’t stay with Duffy, she didn’t see her second place threatened anywhere. Behind Taylor-Brown, Potter and Coldwell battled for the bronze, but it was also pretty clear quickly that Potter would claim the bronze.
Duffy won the race in 55:25. Taylor-Brown claimed the second spot 41 seconds behind and Potter claimed third spot at 1.21 minute.
