No Ibiza party for Dame Flora Duffy as she reveals next race
Dame Flora Duffy will be one of the few people heading to the island of Ibiza in September with no intention to party.
Bermuda’s only Olympic gold medal-winner has revealed the details of her next race and it involves another trip to Europe.
Duffy will be competing in Spain on the T100 Triathlon World Tour on September 28, where she will again face some of the best triathletes in the world just a couple of months after finishing fifth at the OIympic Games in Paris.
After that race Duffy told The Royal Gazette that she would transition to long course racing.
“I have no thoughts of retiring just yet but I will be moving on to some long-course racing for the remaining months of the year,” she said.
“I will take a few weeks to assess what direction I want to go in but my career will pivot to long course.”
That pivot comes almost immediately on the T100 tour, which is named after its unique 100 kilometre format.
So while most people in Ibiza at 10.30am on a Saturday September morning will just be heading to bed after a particularly heavy night, Duffy will be competing in a 2km open water swim, an 80km bike ride and an 18km run to the finish.
The T100 tour event will feature the world’s best triathletes with 20 men and 20 women competing in every race. The majority of the athletes are contracted based on their PTO World Ranking or, like Duffy, awarded a “Hotshot” contract earned by their standing in the sport outside of their PTO World Ranking Position.
There are also “Wildcard” athletes at each event chosen for exceptional recent performances, top athletes coming back from injury or maternity or Olympians stepping up in distance.
The tour culminates with the Grand Final at the end of November with $7 million in prize money up for grabs.