Flora brings it home
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Flora Duffy hailed her comprehensive destruction of the MS Amlin World Triathlon Bermuda field as being close to perfection before declaring her victory as the “absolute highlight of my career”.
Duffy’s display was simply breathtaking in its complete dominance over a quality field, underlined by her becoming the first woman in World Triathlon Series history to win a race after being the fastest in all three disciplines of swim, bike and run.
Unsurprisingly, Duffy came out of Hamilton Harbour in first place before relentlessly building a mammoth lead with every purposeful pedal of her Bermuda-pink bike and each assured stride of the run.
Duffy owns the ITU circuit, having lost only one race she has completed in the past two seasons, and at times in Saturday’s race it seemed hardly worth the other triathletes turning up.
Image courtesy of: The Royal Gazette
Small but mighty nation makes big impression
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A
s I travelled from Surfers Paradise to Burleigh Heads, a random conversation with a fellow bus passenger perfectly encapsulated Bermuda’s showing at the Commonwealth Games.
With the empty seat next to me one of only a few still available, the middle-aged woman, dressed from head to toe in green and gold, plonked herself down and immediately struck up conversation.
She had spotted the laminated accreditation swinging from my neck and wanted to know exactly what my business was on the Gold Coast.
I explained that I was a journalist, reporting on the fortunes of Bermuda’s athletes, but before I could tell her all about Flora Duffy’s golden moment, tell her all about the mixed triathlon relay team’s stunning display, she interrupted me.
“Ah, Bermuda,” she exclaimed. “They’ve done really well haven’t they?”
Patton produces his best
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Campbell Patton produced the best sailing of his young career on the way to a podium display at the Laser Radial Youth European Championships in Balaton, Hungary at the weekend.
The promising sailor earned the bronze medal after finishing third among the 154-strong fleet with five top ten showings — including a best finish of second — in the eight races contested in variable conditions on Lake Balaton.
“I surprised myself and it’s probably the best sailing event that I have had to date,” Patton told The Royal Gazette. “The conditions were pretty tough and we got a variation of wind strengths. It was also really tough competing against all the best guys in Europe.
“The start was probably the major component in having success in all of the races. Having good starts put you in a controlling position in the fleet and from there you can do well.”
