Triathlon’s healthy rivalry ready to light up the ‘friendly Games’

There’s no rancour between Georgia Taylor-Brown and Flora Duffy, a healthy rivalry befitting the first medal event of the ‘friendly Games.’

Triathletes don’t talk trash but there will be no quarter given as the world’s top two women do battle at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the bucolic surrounds of Sutton Park.

That they are the top two is beyond contention. The Bermudan won gold and the English star silver at the Tokyo Olympics and that is where they stand in the triathlon world rankings.

Duffy has won Bermuda’s first - well, everything really - making sporting history every time she swims, bikes, and runs for the archipelago, population 64,000.

The 34-year-old has never been to Birmingham in her life but attended Mount Kelly boarding school in Tavistock, Devon.

She arrives as reigning Commonwealth, world, and Olympic champion - but short of form.

Flora Duffy won triathlon gold at Tokyo 2020 ahead of Georgia Taylor-Brown (Getty Images)

Having contracted Covid-19 twice this year, Duffy was uncharacteristically dropped on the bike leg of the World Series race in Leeds and held on to win in Hamburg despite a time penalty.

That penalty, incredibly the first of her career, saw her penalised for leaving her swim goggles outside the transition box.

She said: “It was a misstep from me.

“If I were to have a [10-second] penalty like that in Birmingham, it would be impossible to win. Or tough. Georgia is way too strong for me to make those silly mistakes.”

If Duffy’s form is a little lukewarm then Taylor-Brown has already come to the boil.

This summer, Team England, supported by funding raised by National Lottery players, comprises of over 400 athletes, all vying for medal success and the 28-year-old will be one of their best shots at gold.

Her six races since Tokyo have yielded two golds and four silvers, allowing Duffy to shift the pressure and lance the boil of expectation.

Duffy said: “I always have a target on my back. You get used to being in that space, you’ve got to get comfortable with it and enjoy it.

“One thing that’s worked in my favour this year is that I have had a bit of a bumpy start. I’m maybe building into form right at the last moment, I haven’t shown it yet.

“I think Georgia has more of a target on her back, it’s a home Games for her, she’s leading the World Series. I’m putting more of the pressure on her and a little bit off me.”

Duffy and Taylor-Brown went head to head in a friendly rivalry in Tokyo (AFP via Getty Images)

The fifth Commonwealth Games triathlon will be contested over a sprint distance - half the Olympic - with a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run.

The Sutton Park course is something of a mystery, but athletes are expecting a challenging run course.

Taylor-Brown’s England team-mate Sophie Coldwell should be at the sharp end as should Scotland’s Beth Potter, and Rio 2016 Olympian over 10,000m on the track. At 33, Wales’s Non Stanford has a point to prove having been overlooked for Tokyo selection.

Meanwhile, Olympic silver medallist Alex Yee is a warm favourite for the men’s race.

Jonny Brownlee was ruled out after an injury sustained in a Leeds crash with Hayden Wilde, that also involved Yee, and the Kiwi might face a frosty reception here.

Wilde has a tattoo of a flight compass on his arm in tribute to his pilot father, who was killed in a plane crash when his son was 12.

Yee will concede ground to South African Henri Schoeman on the swim, but few are likely to be able to live with him on the 5km run, with Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle likely to be closest.

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