Under foggy skies and a slight chill in the air, Great Britain’s Vicky Holland announced her return from injury in style with her first ever World Triathlon Series win. A late surge on the run gave the Brit just what she needed to hold off the USA’s Katie Zaferes and Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig. With silver, Zaferes moved into the top spot on the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings.
Flora Duffy finished 27th today in the World Triathlon Series Cape Town, the 4th race of the series clocking a time of 1:53:34.
Due to the water temperature, the 1500 meter swim was shortened to 750 meters which did not work in Duffy’s favor as the field was not as spread out going into the 40km Bike ride.
Duffy however tried hard to get away on the Bike taking American Katie Zaferes, ranked 2nd in the world, and the UK’s Helen Jenkins with her as they opened up an 11 second gap early on. However, Olympic champion Nicola Spirig from Switzerland, a very strong cyclist, pulled a large chasing group back to the three leaders and despite Duffy’s repeated efforts to get a group away, a group of over 20 started the 10km run together.
Duffy’s efforts on the bike, and perhaps her heavy WTS and Xterra race schedule, took its toll on her as she soon dropped off a strong pace on the flat run. In the end she faded to 27th, some three and a half minutes off the winner, the UK’s Vicky Holland, who broke away from a group of 10 to win from the consistent Katie Zaferes and Nicola Spirig.
After this latest race Duffy dropped from 5th to 6th in the WTS world rankings with Zaferes taking over top spot after another podium finish, due to the fact that Gwen Jorgensen of the USA, who won the first three races in the series, decided to sit out this race.
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