It was a historical day for Bermuda at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with Flora Duffy taking home the country’s first-ever gold medal in women’s triathlon.
Congratulations @floraduffy. You've worked so hard and you've made an entire island proud! ???????????? ???????? pic.twitter.com/ScG1AW0A5G
— Premier David Burt (@BermudaPremier) July 26, 2021
Two-time world champ Duffy reigned over in each 3 legs of the triathlon– swimming, cycling and running– to pull out the win, coming out on top of Great Britain’s 2020 world champ Georgia Taylor-Brown, who got silver, and bronze winner Katie Zaferes of Team USA. Duffy placed an excellent time of 1:55:36 in spite of difficult climate condition that hampered the start of the race. Duffy’s win additionally registered the nation’s second-ever Olympic medal. (The prior medal went to Clarence Hill in 1976).
Duffy’s special win came in the wake of the Philippines’ Hidilyn Diaz triumphing her country’s own first-ever gold in the 55-kilogram classification of women’s weight-lifting. Diaz also set an Olympic record in a close fight that boiled down to her last lift, hefting a combined weight overall of 224 kgs throughout 2 fruitful tries.
” I sacrificed a lot. I wasn’t able to be with my mom and dad for the number of months and years and then obviously, training was excruciating,” Diaz stated, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “But God had a plan.”
Bermuda started taking part in the Olympic Games in 1936, while the Philippines initially competed almost 100 years back in 1924.
