Duffy reigns as Taylor-Brown nudges out Learmonth to take the Super League Championship Title
It was the Queen of Triathlon Flora Duffy who stormed to victory at the Super League Triathlon Championship Series decider in Malibu, California, beating a stacked field of world champions to complete a memorable summer for the Bermudan triathlete.
Duffy, who became the Olympic champion in Tokyo in August, dominated the Eliminator showdown from the off, with the Bermudan’s win ensuring the second-place finisher Georgia Taylor Brown was the overall series champion ahead of her British compatriot Jess Learmonth.
Jess Learmonth who went into this race in sizzling form having been undefeated in the previous three back-to-back outings at London, Munich and Jersey when into this race as a hot favourite to win the Championship.
Olympic Gold medalist and World Triathlon Champion and Lucy Charles-Barclay Ironman 70.3 World Champion coming into the mix on Wild Cards meant that Learmonth was going to have company in the swim that has been her strong suit in her previous victories. With the main benefactor of this being Georgia Taylor- Brownlee who only 2 points behind in the leader standing and double points in the final race to play for meant she could sneak in an capture the title.
With the Eliminator format in play, meaning three stages of swim-bike-run with a 4 minute break in between but eliminations out the back after each bike discipline and run lap, and two Short Chutes up for grabs for the first over the line after T1 and T2 of the Stage 1, tactics are crucial.
Add to that a beach start, a sea swim and the fact that the title was going to be decided by one final short, sharp and intense race of maybe 15 minutes, and there was so much to play for.
And so, it all came down to stage 3 the race for the epic showdown.
The choppy sea of the Pacific Ocean played it part creating obstacles as the swimmers had to dive over a huge wave to commence proceedings as the relentlessly swam their way around the course. And it was the waves again that played a part in the outcome as the swim leaders got washed up by crashing waves whilst swimmers behind were able to ride the crest of the waves giving them a head start as they raced up the beach to T1.
The technical bike leg saw a group of four form at the front. Duffy, Learmonth and Taylor-Brown were there once again, as was Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Katie Zafares. Duffy again controlled the tempo at the front and was first into T2, with Charles-Barclay receiving the Eliminator flag for being the last athlete into T2.
As the four went out onto the run the pace was frantic and Learmonth had no answer and was soon dropping off, and the battle for the win swung decisively in favour of Duffy when the Bermudan took her Short Chute on lap one. The Olympic champ maintained her advantage to add another gold medal to her stuffed trophy cabinet.
Behind Duffy, a battle for the overall Championship title was brewing with Taylor-Brown finishing second in Malibu to take the title ahead of Learmonth. With Katie Zafares taking third spot meant that Taylor-Brown was the champ by just a single point over Learmonth.
With 3 wins and a 4th place in 4 back-to-back weekend races it’s a tough call not to crown Learmonth the Champions because of a man-made points system that few understand. To be a true series Champion you have to win races and for this reason, in many people eyes, Jess Learmonth is the true Champion.
Full Results can be found here:
