Luck has not been on the side of endurance athlete Nicky Farrugia who yesterday had to give up on his attempt at completing the Enduroman Arch to Arc course after his bicycle broke down.
Only the day before the athlete - who was aiming to break the Enduroman world record by running, swimming and cycling between Marble Arch in London and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris - had to be plucked out of the English Channel after he started suffering symptoms of hypothermia.
"It was just one bit of bad luck after the other... It's sad to think that I know I could have finished it and had to quit because of the bicycle... But my motto is to never give up," he said, adding he was already pondering his next challenge.
"Just because I had to give up the challenge it does not mean people have to stop donating money to charity," he said, explaining he had embarked on this feat to collect money for Dar tal-Providenza and Inspire (Eden and Razzett Foundation).
The 48-year-old athlete had already proven his mettle after successfully completing 13 Iron Man triathlons and swimming long distances including the English Channel.
This time, however, the elements worked against him and he only managed to successfully complete the running challenge, which was not enough to earn the Enduroman title.
On Saturday, Mr Farrugia completed his 140-kilometre run from Marble Arch to Dover in 21 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds. After resting for seven hours he started the swim from Shakespeare Beach in Dover at 9.19 a.m. on Sunday but had to give up when he was only a mile away from the French Coast.
After recovering from the swim, he set off on a 290-kilometre cycle from Calais but fell off the bike 105 kilometres into the course, bruising his right knee and grazing his hand. The chain came off, jamming the wheel, and the carbon front fork of the bike snapped in two.
"I could have continued despite my knee injury but, since the bicycle was damaged and we did not manage to fix or replace it, we had no choice but to abandon the challenge," he said.
He added that he had learnt a great deal from this experience and did not rule out attempting the Enduroman challenge again. The public can support the World Record Attempt by sending donations to the HSBC account 068-079821-050.