Dame Flora Duffy suffered another setback after contracting coronavirus, which ruled her out of the Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga, in Tennessee, at the weekend.

“Well my race is over before it even started,” Duffy posted on her Instagram account.

“Have been feeling slightly under the weather the last couple of days and decided I should do a Covid test to rule that out. Two positive tests later … Really sad.

“I was looking forward to racing over the 70.3 distance. I’ve put so much work into the TT bike in recent months. The road to St George just became a little tougher!”

The Olympic and world champion described her symptoms as mild.

“I am doing OK,” she added. “My symptoms are mild but my team and I decided it was not worth risking medium/long-term affects.”

It is the second time in five months that Duffy has contracted Covid-19.

She was forced to start her preseason training programme later than originally planned after testing positive in January.

Duffy eventually started her preparations for a busy upcoming season in South Africa in February training alongside compatriot Tyler Smith.

The 34-year-old had been keen to build on a third-place finish in her first appearance of the year at this month’s World Triathlon Championship Series event in Yokohama, Japan, leading up to Sunday’s Ironman 70.3 event in Tennessee.

The pandemic has taken its toll on elite triathlon with a host of top contenders such as Laura Philipp, Joe Skipper and Javier Gomez having been ruled out of the recent Ironman World Championship in St George after testing positive for Covid.