After overcoming a tough challenge from the world’s top triathletes to win a second straight ITU World Triathlon Series this month, Flora Duffy is set for another challenge when she competes in her first Ironman 70.3 event in Thailand on November 26.

Duffy, who was back in Bermuda last weekend for a break and competed in the Tokio Millennium Re Sprint Triathlon as part of a team, will be packing her bags for, and heading to, Thailand to compete in the Ironman 70.3 event there which will involve a 1.9km swim, 90k bike and 21.1k run.

“Time to see what this long-course racing is all about,” Duffy posted on Instagram yesterday. “Signed up for my first @ironmantri 70.3! Excited to race in Phuket, Thailand later this year.”

Duffy, who is set to compete on home soil next April when the ITU World Triathlon Bermuda is staged, has two races left in this season, the Xterra World Championship in Kapalua, Maui next month and the Island House Triathlon in Bahamas in November.

Her busy schedule will also bring her back home in early November, for the official opening of the Flora Duffy Swimming Facility at Warwick Academy, her former high school’s way of honouring her for becoming a world-class athlete.

“I never thought that would have happened when I was in high school,” she told The Royal Gazette this week. “I swam in that pool when I was a kid and I still do.”