Middaugh, Duffy win XTERRA World Championship
Josiah Middaugh. Photo credit: XTERRA.
Josiah Middaugh, 37, of Eagle-Vail, Colorado won the men’s title at the 20th anniversary edition of the XTERRA World Championship held in Kapalua over the weekend. It was his first world title after 15 attempts. He finished in 2 hours 35 minutes and 32 seconds.
“A couple years ago I knew I had to win it now,” said Middaugh in a post-event press release. “I had to stop saying “one of these years” and start saying “This year…This year I’m going to win this race. I felt it more than ever this year and knew I could do it, I knew I had to do it.”
The top finishers in the men’s race include the following:
| Pl | Name – Age, Hometown | Final Time | Purse |
| 1 | Josiah Middaugh – 37, Eagle-Vail, Colorado | 2:35:32 | $20,000 |
| 2 | Braden Currie – 29, Wanaka, New Zealand | 2:38:30 | $12,000 |
| 3 | Ruben Ruzafa – 31, Malaga, Spain | 2:40:40 | $7,000 |
| 4 | Mauricio Mendez – 20, Mexico City, Mexico | 2:40:54 | $4,000 |
| 5 | Courtney Atkinson – 36, Mermaid Waters, QLD, Australia | 2:42:27 | $2,500 |
| 6 | Francisco Serrano – 35, Monterrey, Mexico | 2:42:57 | $1,500 |
| 7 | Yeray Luxem – 29, Merksem, Belgium | 2:44:45 | $1,100 |
| 8 | Rom Akerson – 31, Tambor, Costa Rica | 2:45:07 | $800 |
| 9 | Nicolas Fernandez – 32, Pelissane, France | 2:46:51 | $600 |
| 10 | Ben Hoffman – 32, Boulder, Colorado | 2:49:56 | $500 |
Flora Duffy. Photo credit: XTERRA.
In the women’s race, 28-year-old Flora Duffy of Bermuda took the title, marking a perfect season and her second consecutive XTERRA World Championship win on Maui.
Duffy won last year’s race (2:47:59) finishing more than two-minutes ahead of her nearest competitor with the event’s best swim, best bike and the second-best run on Maui in 2014.
This year, Duffy crossed the finish line in 2:54:17, five minutes in front of two-time XTERRA World Champion Lesley Paterson.
“It was a crazy day out there,” Duffy said in a post event statement. “I had a good swim and set myself up perfectly. On the bike it was all about perseverance for me. I kept crashing and picking myself back up, and I had Lesley charging hard from behind. Every split I got it was closer and closer. It was a tough day. For everybody it’s tough. You have obstacles you have to get over.”
The top Women finishers were as follows:
| Pl | Name – Age, Hometown | Final Time | Purse |
| 1 | Flora Duffy – 28, Devonshire, Bermuda | 2:54:17 | $20,000 |
| 2 | Lesley Paterson – 35, Sterling, Scotland | 2:59:16 | $12,000 |
| 3 | Emma Garrard – 34, Park City, Utah | 3:03:28 | $7,000 |
| 4 | Myriam Guillot-Boisset – 36, Brindas, France | 3:07:27 | $4,000 |
| 5 | Lizzie Orchard – 29, Epsom, New Zealand | 3:09:57 | $2,500 |
| 6 | Carina Wasle – 31, Kundl, Austria | 3:11:23 | $1,500 |
| 7 | Helena Erbenová – 36, Jablonec, Czech Republic | 3:17:12 | $1,000 |
| 8 | Jacqui Slack – 32, Stoke-On-Trent, United Kingdom | 3:18:04 | $800 |
| 9 | Renata Bucher – 38, Lucerne, Switzerland | 3:19:34 | $600 |
| 10 | Susan Sloan – 34, Benoni, South Africa | 3:20:44 | $500 |
Middaugh and Duffy each received $20,000 for their respective victories.
Touted by race organizers as “the birthplace of off-road triathlon,” Maui was host to the first XTERRA race in 1996. The race featured just 123 participants and has since grown to include a sold-out field of 850 racers from 43 countries this year.
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