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Duffy emerged from the 750 meter Alster See swim in 9th position with a 9 seconds gap, charged to the front on the first lap of the bike and reached T2 with a 39 seconds lead. Duffy closed with a 4th-best 16:32 run to finish in 59:00 with a 31 seconds margin of victory over Ashleigh Gentle of Australia (race-best 16:10 run).
After her victory, Duffy was pleased with her first ever WTS sprint distance win. “I really can’t believe it. Coming into my third race of the year, I felt a lot of pressure, especially it being a sprint and in Hamburg [where] I have not raced in years. So, I just really had to go for it, I tried to race fast from start to finish and I had to make the most on the bike because I knew that my run pace speed was not at the same level as some of the top runners, so I just took a chance and luckily it worked out.”
Gentle explained her come-from-behind silver medal: “I actually had a good start at the dive in, but I got squished from either side and got dunked for a little bit. It was quite horrific to be honest. So I just got onto my bike and did the best I could. There has been plenty of races where I have been in that situation, but I have been able to salvage a good result so there is no reason you should quit after the swim. I just raced as hard as I could and thankfully it paid off.”
In a sprint to the finish line, Laura Lindemann of Germany (16:22 run) edged Katie Zaferes of the U.S. (16:17 run) by 1 second for the final spot of the podium, 10 seconds behind Gentle.
Lindemann was thrilled with her breakthrough WTS bronze: "I am so happy about the podium today. Here with the home crowd, it is so wonderful. I was just pushing as hard as I could and I was so amazed with the crowd!”
The win was Duffy’s 5th WTS victory which includes a win at the 2016 WTS Grand Final at Cozumel, the 2016 WTS World Championship, and 2017 WTS wins at Yokohama, Leeds and Hamburg – her first WTS sprint distance title..
By finishing 4th, Katie Zaferes of the U.S. advanced to lead the 2017 WTS women’s point standings. Kristen Kasper of the U.S., who led the women’s WTS rankings after 4 races, fell to 3rd place in the rankings after finishing 9th.
Race recap