Triathlon sensation Flora Duffy continued her superb year, picking up first place in the junior section of the Michelob London Triathlon yesterday.

Duffy, who finished eighth in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, romped home nearly two minutes ahead of her nearest junior rival in one hour, 11 minutes and 38 seconds on the sprint course.

Having finished 24th in her first World Cup event last weekend in north west England ? in which she was punched and pulled under water on a physical swim by ?hardcore? competitors ? Duffy enjoyed the much more sedate and genteel junior competition yesterday.

She was sixth after the 750 metre swim and completed the 20 kilometre cycle in the fastest time of 40.33. But it was on the run that she really pulled away.

Her 17 minute, 52 second 5K was nearly a minute faster than any of the other 18 girls and propelled her to a comfortable win in a time that would have placed her in the top half of the men?s junior event.

Now completely recovered from a knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the national championships here earlier in the summer, Duffy is focusing on the Junior Worlds in Lausanne, Switzerland at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, 20 of Bermuda?s junior triathletes have just returned home after competing in the 2006 Trimemphre Triathlon in Magog, Quebec, Canada.

The youngsters, all members of the TriHedz Bermuda Junior Triathlon Club, participated in a variety of age groups in the annual event.

The Bermuda contingent coped well with the language barrier and the local conditions to hold their own and returned with two first place medals, earned by Justin Ferreira in the boys? 8-9 age group and Victoria Davis in the girls? seven and under race.

Ferreira powered to an impressive victory in the 8-9 boys? race (100m swim, 4.5km bike, 1.4km run) in 20:49 to claim gold for the Bermuda team with Charlie Pilgrim finishing in 30:11.

Rounding out the junior competition, Davis won the seven and under girls? race (50m swim, 1.4Km bike, 500m run) in 10:27, while Ryan Day gamely battled stomach cramps on the run course to finish the race, after leaving transition in third after the swim and bike.

For most of the team, this was their first taste of overseas competition. Chris Harkness, the TriHedz coach accompanying the youngsters said: ?These overseas events provide a great opportunity for our juniors to measure themselves against some pretty tough competition. Junior triathlon in Quebec is well organised and very popular. Our kids did very well achieving several top ten finishes.?

And veteran athletes Jeff Conyers and Greg Hopkins both won their age groups, Hopkins in the 50-54 sprint distance (1:08:09 ? 8th overall finisher), Conyers in the 50-54 half-ironman distance (5:46:28).