Veteran runner Alfred Debono displays the no.10 on his hands after completing the marathon in Hawaii, last month.

Alfred Debono has now established himself as one of the country’s leading veteran long distance runners, having taken part in over 60 major races in his career.

Among the races he took part in, Debono travelled abroad for 22 full marathons, including nine high-profile events among the world’s top ten 42.2km challenges in terms of amounts of finishers each year.

Having already completed the dis-tances at the mara-thons of Amsterdam, Berlin, Boston, Chi-cago, London, New York, Paris, Rotterdam and Stockholm, Debono was looking forward to the missing link – the race in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The chance to realise his dream of becoming the first Maltese runner to complete the top ten marathons in the world came last month.

After months of mental and physical preparation, under the charge of coach Ivan Rozhnov, Debono was among the 36,000 participants who took off from the Ala Moana Boulevard in Honolulu.

Beaming with pride and satisfaction, he crossed the finishing line at the Kapiolani Park in 1,834th position, wearing the customary Hawaiian wreath and Maltese flag in hand, among the foremost runners in his age group (65-69 years).

Debono’s urge and enthusiasm for long distance running did not stop there as only six days later he was in California for the Walnut Creek half-marathon.

This time, Debono was the first runner home in his age group to wrap up another successful trip across the Atlantic also thanks to the assistance of Medcomms, Health Aid and GasanMamo Insurance.