Experienced Duffy feeling like a 'rookie' again ahead of Ibiza T100

By Ben Hart

Flora Duffy is an Olympic gold medallist in triathlon but ahead of her first T100 foray of the season she says she feels like a ‘rookie’ in the sport again.

Duffy, 36, was focused on defending her Tokyo gold in Paris but a string of injuries nearly forced her off the start line.

She battled to a fifth place finish and is now focused on conquering the longer courses on the T100 tour, starting with this weekend’s race in Ibiza.

“I feel like I’m a rookie again in triathlon, I’ve been racing for well over 10 years and now I’m entering this new side of triathlon with new challenges and it kind of makes me feel uncomfortable and not as confident as I would be with so much to learn but that’s a really exciting place to be in,” said Duffy.

“I have no expectations on myself – I’ve won some pretty big short course events so you always have that bit of a reputation but it’s exciting to be in something new, tackle a new challenge and get better as each race goes on.

“It’s a really great field lining up this weekend, probably one of the best the T100 has had all year and the T100 is held in lots of cool places around the world. It’s very enticing to step up to this distance and event.

“The cool thing about triathlon is that you can step up to distances as your career goes along and you can be highly accomplished in one and you step up to the T100 distance and it might go well for you or it might not. It’s such a different racing dynamic.”

The field for this Saturday’s race is impressive even by T100 standards, with Anne Haug, Taylor Knibb and Ashleigh Gentle – the top three ranked PTO athletes in the world at the end of last year – lining up on the start line for the first time together.

Duffy cannot be ruled out though and she might be one of those joining Paula Findlay to push the pace on the bike to take a promising position into the run.

“It’s a beautiful ocean swim so that’s going to be really nice, it will probably be my favourite part of the race. The 80km bike ride is the longest portion of the triathlon, so it’s a pretty fast rolling course, a bit of undulation, nothing too technical. The conditions aren’t too extreme either which is nice,” added Duffy.

“I’m looking forward to racing, for me it’s a case of stepping up to a new distance.

“Typically racing short-course Olympic distance, so this feels like a whole new side of triathlon, which is exciting and it’s a really great field, we’re in a cool place – racing in Ibiza is quite a contrast from us and everybody else that’s on the island.

“It should be a really great exciting race and I’m excited to see how it unfolds.”

Watch the Ibiza T100 Triathlon races live in Europe on Eurosport 2. Broadcast for the men is from 0745 UK, with the race starting at 0800 and then the women dive in at 1030. Both Ibiza T100 races and behind-the-scenes content can be watched live and for free on PTO+ from anywhere.