On April 13th Flora Duffy won the XTERRA West Championship, fast forward today and she has won the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championships.
It was another amazing performance by Duffy who finished far ahead of XTERRA World Champ Nicky Samuels and placed 9th overall. Samuels was first woman out of the water and an equally amazing 2nd overall out of the swim. Jacqui Slack put together three solid legs of swim/bike/run that netted her 3rd woman. XTERRA Saipan winner Carina Wasle 4th and the "Swiss Miss" Renata Bucher 5th.
Duffy clocked an overall time of 2:33.07, she spent 18.28 in the water on the Swim Course, then she clocked 1:22.28 on the Bike Course and then she clocked 50.24 on the Run Course.
"It all came together," said Duffy, who was still celebrating the winning the XTERRA West Championship two weeks ago and has clearly solidified herself as the woman to beat this year. "I felt great coming into T2 after a really tough bike course and just hammered the first 2K of the run. I just focused on my turnover because I knew Nicky is a strong runner and I wasn't sure how far behind she was."
Samuels was just about four minutes back at the bike-to-run transition, but coming off a cold and without the power she had hoped to put up a worthy fight.
"Having been sick for a week, to finish in 2nd is a great result," said Samuels. "I'm not so good on the single track and this race was fast, and a bit technical through the bush and over trees. Having been racing World Series for nine years I can't expect to be riding a mountain bike that well, so am justly happy for the result."
Slack was the third woman out of the swim more than two minutes back and hoping to catch Duffy and Samuels by T2 but it wasn't in the cards.
"I couldn't have done much better so really happy with the effort," said Slack. "It's great to have such talent in the field and keeps the drive going to get faster and stronger."
Renata Bucher had the second-best bike split of the day behind Duffy but Wasle was able to catch her on the run to take the fourth spot.
The entire field echoed the same sentiment, that New South Wales is a special place.
"This area is gorgeous," said Duffy. "Growing up in Bermuda I'm kind of a beach snob, so it takes a lot for a beach to impress me and I can tell you it's gorgeous here, that white sand and water is beautiful. I really enjoyed the swim and seeing Kangaroos, it definitely felt like Australia."
