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Flora Duffy won the Women’s Boulder Sprint Triathlon handily, finishing in 1:08.36. Duffy, who trains with Gardner under coaches Neal Henderson and Grant Holicky, is a two-time Olympian. She graduated from the University of Colorado in May, though she had to take one more course to be completely finished, a month-long intensive at CU called Maymester.
Now that she's finished school, Duffy is back to racing full-time and the Sprint was a chance to brush back the Triathlon "cobwebs" before a packed racing schedule this summer.
"This is the first Triathlon I've done since November," Duffy said. "The first race back always hurts like heck. I had a great swim. Pretty mediocre bike. The run was OK. It was a hard day for me. It didn't feel as comfortable hard as it should've been. It was just me hanging on all day."
The race pioneered a new swim start model which started athletes by ability, rather than in traditional age group waves. FastForward Sports founder Scott Fliegelman, who developed the new swim start model, said overall he was pleased with the changes.
The change to the swim start was meant to alleviate anxiety for newer or slower athletes who started the race after more experienced competitors and didn't have to worry about getting passed or swum over in the water.
"I liked how relaxed everyone at the back looked," Fliegelman said after the race. "I didn't mind how aggressive the front wave was either."
Some athletes said they liked the changes to the swim start, but had a few suggestions such as adding more waves or adding more time in between waves to give swimmers more space in the water.
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