 Flora Duffy became the 2015 XTERRA Women's World Champion after leading the Women’s Pro race from start to finish.
Duffy clocked a winning time of 2:54:17, Leslie Paterson was second in 2:59:16 and Emma Garrard rounded out the podium for the Female Pros finishing third with a time of 3:03:28.
In a sea of green caps at the front of the swim, there was a lone pink one—that belonging to Duffy, the ITU racer who finished this year’s series ranked 7th in the World.
Duffy swam with the lead Men’s pack, exiting the Swim alone, but trailed closely by Canadian Christine Jeffrey, Jacqui Slack of the UK, American Emma Garrard and Mexico’s Fabiola Corona. Lesley Paterson was fifth out of the water.
By mile 6 of the ride Paterson had moved up to second, 2:10 behind Duffy, followed by Garrard. That 1-2-3 order continued into T2, but by then Paterson had closed the gap to just 1:35.
Although Duffy said post-race she struggled throughout the day, she was able to hold off Paterson and the other Women with a 46:23 10K, second fastest of the day. Paterson held her position with a 49:36 run, and Garrard ran a race-best 46:09 for third, her best finish place here in Maui. She was also the top American woman for the third straight year.
Meanwhile, Neil de ste Croix and Laurie Orchard produced excellent results at the XTerra World Championships 2015.
de ste Croix completed the tough offroad event in 3:40:40 to take 14th place in the 50-54 Age Group. de ste Croix covered the 1500m Swim in a time of 27:17, the 30K Bike distance in 2:08:02 and completed the 10K run in 1:01:21.
Orchard was 5th out of the water in her Age Group in 27:20 and then produced a Bike time of 2:40:41 and Run in 1:08:34 to finish 20th in the 40-44 Age Group and the 96th Female to cross the line with an overall time of 4:23:00.
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