Flora Duffy will take on some of the best athletes in the world in the women’s triathlon at Glasgow, and hopes are high she will gain a top-10 place.
The North East Evening Mail have done an article on Duffy with her father Charlie Duffy.
Her Barrow-born dad Charlie, along with her aunt and uncle, Anne and John Reed, will be cheering her on when she sets off in the tough swim-cycle-run endurance sport at round 11am.
Flora is representing the small Atlantic island of Bermuda, where she was born.
Dad Charlie – a former Sacred Heart and Barrow Grammar School pupil – moved to Bermuda in the 1970s, after working as an articled clerk and beginning his training as a chartered accountant at RF Miller in Barrow.
While Flora has been busy preparing for the race, her dad took time out to head back to his hometown and visit sister Anne, who has been proudly flying the Bermuda flag outside her Park Drive home.
Charlie – a big Barrow AFC fan – took the opportunity to watch the Bluebirds in action in Saturday’s friendly against Carlisle at Holker Street, and also watched the Raiders versus Sheffield Eagles match, before heading up to Scotland in readiness for the start of the Games.
Looking ahead to watching Flora race in tomorrow’s women’s triathlon, Mrs Reed said: “We are looking forward to it. She has done very well in triathlons in America and Mexico, but my brother said the Commonwealth Games has got the best triathletes in the world so she is not expecting to win. But if she could get in the top 10 that would be great.”
“I have got a big Bermuda flag,” added Mrs Reed, a dementia support worker for the Alzheimer’s Society in Barrow.
“I had it hanging out of the window because my brother and his oldest son came to stay with us at the weekend so I always put a big flag out to welcome them.
“He’s a big Barrow supporter, whenever he is over he plans it around football. Then he went to the rugby on Sunday.”
Flora’s dad, who will be with his wife Maria and son Joel at the event, said: “We will all be pretty nervous watching her until the end of the race, or until she gets the swim and the bike over and she gets on the run. It is exciting, a major games, she’s excited about it.
“She would hope to be top 10 if everything goes reasonably well. Although it is only the Commonwealth they are strongest countries competing, so it is a very strong field, not the least the Brits, who are very good at triathlon.”
The last time Flora was in Barrow was around six years ago when she took advantage of the terrain around Furness to take part in some useful training sessions, under the watchful eye of her dad, who is also a keen triathlete.
The 26-year-old started competing in triathlon at the age of seven, and she represented Bermuda in swimming at the 2004 Junior Commonwealth Games. Swimming is her strongest discipline and in her formative years she came over from Bermuda to a school in England which specialises in swimming, and this helped her prepare for the rigours of triathlon.
Flora later moved from Bermuda to Boulder, Colorado, USA, where she now lives, when not competing on the worldwide stage.
She represented Bermuda in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 where she finished eighth. Flora battled for Olympic glory in the London Olympics two years ago, but a crash in the cycling stage saw her hopes dashed and she finished 45th out of 55 starters.
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