World Triathlon racing returned to Bermuda for the first time since 2019. With Georgia Taylor-Brown not racing, there was a big opportunity for Flora Duffy to close the gap in the race for the world title.

Swim – Seregni leads out Duffy

Coming into the race I was interested to see how Flora Duffy would perform over the swim. She has been off the lead pace in middle distance races and was consistently out swam by Taylor Knibb.

However Duffy was in control early on, setting off quick and then settling in behind the Italian Bianca Seregni. After the first lap Seregni exited the water first, closely followed by Duffy and Vittoria Lopes. Sophie Coldwell was slightly off this lead group sitting 8 seconds back. Then came a large stream of athletes including Beth Potter (+15s), Taylor Spivey (+19s) and Knibb (+22s).

Seregni continued to set the pace at the front over the second lap of the swim. She was towing along Duffy, Lopes and Summer Rappaport. Coldwell had closed the gap slightly and was a couple seconds behind this leading group of 4. Duffy made a surge to come along side Seregni in the closing meters of the swim and they exited the water together. Coldwell had reduced her gap to 6 seconds, while the other key contenders had lost further time, Spivey (+27s), Knibb (+31s) and Potter (+32s).

I was expecting to see Knibb further up here after seeing her strong performances at the US Open and IM 70.3 world championships, 30 seconds is a big gap to make up on Duffy.

Bike – Dynamic duo up front

You could see Duffy was on a mission through T1, she ran hard from the water to her bike and had the second fastest transition time. This enabled her to exit T1 first, mount her bike and gain an advantage to breakaway on lap 1.

Further back, after exiting the water with Potter, Knibb lost a valuable 5 seconds through T1 and was immediately off the back of the chasers. Duffy was already up the road when the chasers came together on the first lap to form a group of 13, they came through lap 1 21 seconds down. Knibb, who should have been able to make this group, had lost a further 23 seconds. With her bike ability this gap isn’t the end of the race but she would have had a much easier time if she had been quicker through transition.

On the second lap Maya Kingma attacked while the chasers climbed Flora Duffy Hill. She broke away on the climb and continued to surge to the dead turn and was able to catch Duffy on the descent. None of the other chasers were able to follow Kingma, and her and Duffy started to work together on the front. The chasers has cut the lead to 16 seconds through lap 2 but this is as close as they would get. Knibb still sat 39 seconds back from the leaders after the second lap.

Knibb caught the chasers near the start of the 4th lap but up ahead Duffy and Kingma were working well together and had stretched their lead to 44 seconds by the end of lap 4. Once again climbing Flora Duffy Hill, this time it was Knibb’s turn to attack off the front of the chasers. She broke away and found herself between the chasers and Duffy and Kingma up front.

This is how it would stay over the closing 3 laps. Duffy and Kingma came into T2 with a 42 second lead over Knibb and 1:50 gap to the chasing group, which included Potter, Spivey, Coldwell and Laura Lindemann.

Run – Duffy victory lap

Kingma had suffered an ankle sprain leading into the race so there were questions if she would even race. She didn’t look as smooth as normal coming out of T2 and she was immediately on the back foot as Duffy had the quicker transition. Duffy was in the clear early and with such a big gap over the chasers looked in firm control to take the win.

Kingma and Knibb both lost time to Duffy over the first lap and Knibb was closing in on Kingma who had started to grimace. Potter had broken away from the chasing group and sat a further 30 seconds back.

Knibb and Potter went on to overtake a slowing Kingma on the third lap but Potter couldn’t get close enough to Knibb to challenge for second. Heading onto the final lap Duffy had the chance to take in the crowd and the great achievement of winning on home soil.

Results

An impressive performance from Duffy to reassert herself over the short course distance. Her and Knibb both recovered well from IM 70.3 world championships to take 1 and 2 in Bermuda.

1. Flora Duffy – 2:01:26
2. Taylor Knibb – 2:03:04
3. Beth Potter – 2:03:17
4. Laura Lindemann – 2:04:00
5. Taylor Spivey – 2:04:05

World Championship Series

1. Georgia Taylor-Brown – 3925
2. Flora Duffy – 3856
3. Beth Potter – 3369
4. Laura Lindemann – 3200
5. Taylor Knibb – 3190

With 1250 points on the line in Abu Dhabi it’s winner takes all between Duffy and Taylor-Brown. Will Knibb be able to spoil their fun and jump into the top 3?