Olympian Duffy stays in pole position with silver

The 28-year-old Bermudian athlete, whose dad Charlie hails from Burnley, while some sections of her family are avid Clarets, held the lead for most of the race which incorporated a two-lap wetsuit swim, a technical bike course and a four-lap 10km run in the city centre.

However, the USA’s Gwen Jorgensen overtook her in the final minutes to claim the gold with Duffy holding on to second spot with a time of 2:01:24.

Vicky Holland from Great Britain claimed the bronze, Jodie Stimpson from Great Britain was fourth and Barbara Riveros from Chile rounded off the top five.

Speaking to Triathlon.org in the aftermath, Duffy, who has accumulated 2,691 points in the competition, said: “Starting the run with Gwen behind you is always a bit of a terrifying thing, but I am happy with how things went today.

“I had to do a lot of work on the bike, the British girls were not working with me, they had some team tactics.

“They were told they had to ride a certain way so I was the only one who could put in work, if I had help perhaps I could have run a little bit better and perhaps we could have had a little more time, but that is racing, that is team tactics.

“It was a great day for me, I am super happy. It is a really cool moment for me to be able to wear the gold number.

“My parents are here and it is the first time that they have seen me race this year, so to be able to wear the gold number and be leading the race it feels incredible.

“It is one step closer to Rio and this is how I want to race in Rio.”