Keith Galea carried the honours in the Volkswagen International Triathlon, organised by the Cyprus Triathlon Association in Limassol, on Sunday.

This was the Birkirkara St Joseph triathlete’s third success on the trot away from our shores following his previous successes in Israel and Sicily in the span of a few weeks.

In Limassol, Galea com-pleted the race in one hour, 57 minutes and 17 seconds, beating the rest of the field by over one minute.

On Sunday, he had to deal with the challenge coming from Cyprus national team members Marian Cosmos Costantin and Stavros Antoniou, both of the Famagusta Nautical Club.

Knowing beforehand that they were particularly good in the cycling segment, Galea surged into the lead from the very start of the race. His swim time of 19 minutes in the 1,500-metre course, was two minutes faster than that of his nearest rival.

He further improved his gap with an efficient swim-to-bike transition before starting the undulating 40-kilometre cycle that included four laps on a steep hill.

Galea pedalled at a relentless pace to sustain as wide a gap as possible over his nearest pursuers ahead of the 10km run.

His time in the bike was one hour, two minutes, 25 seconds, which reduced his provisional lead to just over one minute.

However, his performance in the run was second to none. He covered the distance in 35 minutes and 50 seconds to win the race in a personal best time.

Second place was a close affair between the two Cypriot internationals. In the end, Costantin edged past Antoniou in the final stages to register a time of 1:58.25, just 34 seconds faster than his compatriot.

Galea is sponsored by Starbene and is currently in the 20/20 Elite Scheme under the tutelage of the Kunsill Malti għall-Isport.