Maltese Triathletes excel at the Vulcano Regional Championships in Catania
Maltese triathletes keep showing their mettle at international races, where four achieved very good results taking part in a standard distance triathlon (1.5 km swim, 40 km cycle, 10 km run) in Sicily.
On Sunday, 29 September, David Galea, Jude Zammit, Gaetano Catania of Agones SFC and Graham Borg of Athleta Pembroke competed in the Vulcano Olympic Triathlon, the regional championship race organised by FITRI (Federazione Italiana Triathlon).
The apparent near perfect weather conditions were almost spoilt by jellyfish-infested waters. Despite the assurance of the organisers that these species were harmless, participants were still advised to use wetsuits as a precaution.
As expected, the first Maltese athlete out of the water was Graham Borg, who kept his consistent swimming performance, having enjoyed an excellent swimming season. He exited the water segment in a time of 25 min despite it being 300m longer than the usual distance applied for this type of standard distance. Borg, having to work much of the time leading the pack in the draft legal bike segment, finished the race in 2:15:48, earning a third place in his category.
Galea, coming from an extraordinary season that already saw him winning the age group in the middle distance triathlon (1.9 km swim, 90 km cycle, 21 km run) in Trapani in April and more recently placing second in his category in a long-distance triathlon (3.8 km swim, 180 km cycle, 42.2 km run) in Henley on Thames, apart from the very good results achieved locally, finished the race with an excellent run and beating the Sicilian regional champion in his category by placing eighth overall and first in his category in a time of 2:09:59.
Jude Zammit and Gaetano Catania both competing in the same category also achieved very good results by placing first and third respectively. Zammit, like Galea, also coming from a second place in his age group in Henley on Thames triathlon managed a very good run to pick up positions and finish in 2:15:40. Catania, despite the mishap of having to swim without the wetsuit, managed a solid performance with a result of 2:21:46.
A presentation was held immediately after the race, with all four Maltese athletes enjoying their place on the podium. The Maltese athletes’ success was congratulated by the organisers and also generated a lot of interest in the local media, who were very interested to know about the Maltese triathlon scene.