Flora Duffy Grabs Abu Dhabi Victory
After wins at the Olympics and the World Triathlon world championship, Flora Duffy spent some celebrating her triumphs, leading her to wonder what kind of shape she would be coming back to the World Triathlon circuit. But after a 10th place swim and a second best bike split, the Bermudian felt right at home to kick off the new season.
Duffy, 2020 Olympic Champion, two-time World Triathlon Championship Series titlist , 11-time ITU Championship series event winner, had never won the World Triathlon individual series race at Abu Dhabi before. After a 12-seconds margin over Olympic runner-up Georgia Taylor-Brown of Great Britain, Duffy added Abu Dhabi to her sterling résumé after her victory in the sprint distance event Saturday which boasted one of the strongest fields since the Olympics.
After a 10th-best 9:38 swim left her 8 seconds off the lead, Duffy put the hammer down on the bike with a second-best 28:19 bike split that put her 9 seconds behind bike leader Taylor Knibb (28:10 bike split) of the U.S. Duffy then rocketed away to the lead with a race-best 16:12 split for the 5-kilometer run that brought her to the finish in 55:41 with a 12-seconds margin over Georgia Taylor-Brown of Great Britain and 30 seconds over 3rd place finisher Sophie Coldwell of Great Britain.
“It was really hard out there,” Duffy told World Triathlon media. “Coming into this race I didn’t know what to expect, I had a very busy four past weeks, my whole world flipped upside down after Tokyo. Today I really had to fight for it, I used all my skills, experience and tactics to win today. I knew Georgia would come – she is such a classy runner. I knew that I am good on downhills so I tried to break her confidence on the downhill. The last 800 meters I just went as hard as I could and it paid off.”
Taylor-Brown, who missed the WTCS series opener at Hamburg, took the silver medal. “I found my legs again in the second lap and went for it, but to be honest I did not have my best legs today,” she told World Triathlon media. “I didn’t know what shape I was in. I came for a top ten today, so I surprised myself,”she explained.
Coldwell claimed the bronze, the second WTCS podium of her career after her third place in Leeds in 2021. “I have waited for so long to podium at the Championship Series and now two in a row is just perfect, I am so happy”, she said.
Race recap
Jessica Learmonth and Sophie Coldwell of Great Britain led the swim with 9:30 splits that gave them a 3-seconds lead on Summer Rappaport of the U.S. and Yuko Takahashi of Japan, 5 seconds on rising short course star Lucy Charles-Barclay of Great Britain and Sara Perez Sala of Spain, 7 seconds on Taylor-Brown, 8 seconds on Duffy and Vicky Holland of Great Britain. 11 seconds on Cassandre Beaugrand of France and 13 seconds on Taylor Knibb of the U.S. and 23 seconds on Taylor Spivey of the U.S.
As usual Taylor Knibb of the U.S. led with a 28:10 bike split that gave her 9 seconds lead on Duffy, 2109 seconds on Taylor-Brown, 15 seconds on Coldwell and Learmonth, and 26 seconds on Charles-Barclay.
After a race-best 16:12 split for the 5-kilometer run, Duffy crossed the line in 55:41 with a 12 seconds margin on Taylor-Brown (16:25 run split) and 30 seconds on 3rd-place finisher Coldwell (16:45 run).
Jessica Learmonth took 4th place, 46 seconds behind the leader. After 17:06 run split, Taylor Knibb took 5th place, 8 seconds behind Learmonth.
1. Flora Duffy (BER) S 9:38 T1 1:02 B 28:19 T2 0:27 R 16:12 TOT 55:41
2. Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) S 9:37 T1b 1:03 B 28:20 T2 0:26 R 16:25 TOT 55:53
3. Sophie Coldwell (GBR) S 9:30 T1 1:05 B 28:25 T2 0:25 R 16:45 TOT 56:11
4. Jessica Learmonth (GBR) S 9:30 T1 1:03 B 28:25 T2 0:26 R 17:02 TOT 56:27
5. Taylor Knibb (USA) S 9:43 T1 1:05 B 28:10 T2 0:29 R 17:06 TOT 56:35
6. Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) S 9:41 T1 1:04 B 29:58 T2 0:23 R 16:16 TOT 57:24
7. Beth Potter (GBR) S 9:51 T1 1:05 B 29:44 T2 0:24 R 16:22 TOT 57:28
8. Non Stanford (GBR) S 9:56 T1 1:03 B 29:40 T2 0:28 R 16:22 TOT 57:31
9. Rachel Klamer (NED) S 9:56 T1 1:06 B 29:36 T2 0:26 R 16:27 TOT 57:34
10. Vicky Holland (GBR) S 9:39 T1 1:04 B 29:56 T2 0:28 R 16:29 TOT 57:38
11. Taylor Spivey (USA) S 9:53 T1 1:04 B 29:39 T2 0:26 R 16:46 TOT 57:51
12. Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) S 9:35 T1 1:01 B 29:36 T2 0:25 R 17:15 TOT 57:54
