Zammit and Bonello Spiteri win race three

Mark Zammit confirmed his current good form by winning the third race in the Birkirkara St Joseph Triathlon Series, relegating national champion Dermot Galea to second place by 31 seconds.

Women’s champion Danica Bonello Spiteri had to work hard to fend off the stiff challenge of Johanna Calleja to register her third consecutive victory.

On a day deemed to be historic for the fewer triathlon community, with no fewer than 67 individual triathletes and seven teams taking part in the day’s events, Zammit turned on a fine performance that stopped the clock in the second best time of this year’s series, four seconds behind Keith Galea’s result in race two.

Zammit completed the 750m swim in 10 minutes 14 seconds to open a 44-second advantage over Dermot Galea.

Galea could only manage to bridge the gap by 33 seconds in the 20-kilometre bike segment of the race, with Zammit rushing out to the five-kilometre run after cycling the distance in 30 minutes 56 seconds.

With Galea unable to go into higher gear, Zammit further increased his gap by completing the run segment in 19 minutes, 8 seconds to win the race in an overall time of one hour, 18 seconds.

Dermot Galea was second in (1:00.49) ahead of the ever-improving Karl Attard (1:00.57).

Bonello Spiteri’s gruelling schedule of events, must have taken its toll in this third sprint triathlon of the season.

To make life even more difficult for the champion, challenger Johanna Calleja has improved impressively over the first two races.

In the 750-metre swim, the gap between the two female triathletes was one second. Bonello Spiteri’s experience in the bike segment, paid good dividends. She cycled the 20 kilometres in 35 minutes, 38 seconds to open a 38-second lead on Calleja.

However Calleja came back to reduce the margin in the final five-kilometre run. The champion’s reaction was timely in the final stages of the race, assuring a 100 per cent record by winning the race in one hour, 12 minutes, 35 seconds – 15 seconds faster than Calleja.

The final race of the 2010 Series will be held on Sunday at the Salina-Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq Coast Road, starting at 7.30 a.m.