Flora Duffy intent on racing WTCS Abu Dhabi and Xterra World Championship
Olympic Gold Medalist, Flora Duffy is intent on racing at the upcoming World Triathlon Championship Series Abu Dhabi in November and is also considering competing in the Xterra World Championship in Kapalua, Maui, in December.
The 33-year-old Bermudian has revealed her plans to compete at the WTCS Abu Dhabi event featuring the world’s elite triathletes to take place on Yas Island on November 5 and 6.
“I have raced in Abu Dhabi a couple of times but since they have moved into a new location, which they did in 2018, we race on an F1 track and I’ve never completed the race on that course,” Duffy told the Bermudian ‘Royal Gazette’. So I suppose going to Abu Dhabi will be nice to have a good race there and to finish, to not crash.”
The field is expected to boast an impressive line-up of Olympic and world champions including defending men’s and women’s champions Mario Mola and Katie Zaferes.
Points earned at the final World Triathlon Championship Series event of the year will count towards the 2022 season.
Duffy is fresh off victory on her debut at the Super League Triathlon championship series finale in Malibu.
Her dominant display on the way to claiming the title capped a memorable and historic summer in which she clinched Bermuda’s first Olympic gold medal and the World Triathlon Championship Series title for a record-equalling third time.
Meanwhile, Duffy is also exploring other options to compensate for the cancellation of the 2021 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championship. The championship was scheduled to be held in Bermuda from October 15 to 17 but has been cancelled amid the spike in Covid-19 cases on island.
“I would just like to do another race now that Bermuda is cancelled before I finish up my year,” Duffy added. “Still looking at the options but it’s quite tricky because there’s not many options and some of them are in kind of like far-reaching places in the world.”
Among the options she is exploring is potentially competing in a half-Ironman event.
“It would be half-Ironman, a 70.3, and the reason I would do that is to solidify my qualification for the Half-Ironman World Championships next year,” Duffy said. “Just easy to come and get it done so it’s out of the way because what I’ve learnt is that races chop and change and before you know it you’re in a time crunch trying to fit everything in. So that would be the reasoning for doing a 70.3 at the end of the year.”
Duffy is also considering competing in the Xterra World Championship in Kapalua, Maui, on December 5. The Ironman World Championships in Kona was cancelled this year so it still uncertain as to whether Xterra Worlds will be held in Maui.”
“That will be my final race but again we’re still waiting for 100 per cent confirmation that that race will go on because Hawaii is very similar to Bermuda,” said Duffy, who is a five-times Xterra world champion. “If they get a small spike in Covid, their hospitals fill up quickly and they can’t hold mass-participation races.
But all of this will be on the back-boiler for today as the Golden Girl is being welcomed back to the island of Bermuda with a motorcade in her honour to celebrate her historic gold medal-winning exploits at the Olympic Games. Flora returns back to her homeland for the first time since Tokyo to meet with the Premier David Burt for a special presentation in advance of the ‘Flora Duffy Day’ public holiday on October 18th.
The special recognitions Bermuda will bestow upon Flora will include the renaming of the National Sports Centre Stadium to the Flora Duffy Stadium, the renaming of Corkscrew Hill to Flora Duffy Hill, a special recognition by the Bermuda Post Office, an artistic mural announcement, a Flora Duffy statue being commissioned and an open-air Tribute Concert
