 Flora Duffy was crowned the 2017 XTERRA Women's World Champion in Maui.
Duffy broke fast to a 53 seconds lead with a women's-best 19:15 swim, crushed the bike leg with a 1:41:01 split that was 3:40 better than her strongest pursuer. Duffy, the two time defending World Triathlon Series World Champion, closed the deal with a women’s-best 45:08 trail run – 1:27 better than the next-best split - on Kapalua’s steep and rugged hills that brought her to the finish in 2:47:48 with an 8:24 margin of victory over Chilean Olympian Barbara Riveros and 9:37 over 3rd place Laura Philipp of Germany.
Duffy’s 4th straight XTERRA World Championship broke her tie with 3-time winners Julie Dibens of Great Britain and Melanie McQuaid of Canada and tied with XTERRA Men’s 4-time World Champion Conrad Stoltz of South Africa. Duffy’s XTERRA World Championship four-peat stands alone in the world of off road triathlon.
Duffy’s 2:47:48 time was her best of her four victories on the Kapalua course - 11 seconds better than her 2014 winning time. Duffy’s time was the 13th best overall including the men and was just 15:38 behind Weiss’s men’s winning time – roughly 10 minutes better than the average difference between the men’s and women's winners.
“We had a really hard day out there as always,” said Duffy. “So I just kept pushing hard all day. I just kept it positive. The course is really hard and brutal so even the best have a hard time out there.”
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