Top world endurance athletes will descend on Malta to race in the XTERRA Triathlon to be held in Majjistral on Sunday.
Xterra is an international series that includes races around the globe, with the European stage being opened by the race in Malta.
The off-road triathlon, starting at 9.30am, sees competitors swim 1.5km in Golden Bay, mountain bike 30km around Majjistral and Mizieb, and run 11km around the Ġnejna plateau.
The focus of the event is to encourage sports in nature, combining discipline, self-discovery and competition in an environment that is both beautiful and demanding.
The race in Malta has attracted over 30 elite professionals and 80 age-groupers from 19 countries.
The Malta Tourism Authority is a lead partner in the race organisation.
“We believe that sport, particularly held in the beauty of our nature reserves, is the perfect way to attract more tourists to our shores. We are thinking about long term investments in developing these markets and diversifying the visitor to Malta outside the summer months,” CEO Paul Bugeja said in a statement.
The transition between swimming, cycling and running will be held in front of the Radisson Blu Resort, one of the main sponsors of the race.
The area will be managed by the Hellfire Team, joint organisers of the event.
Nathan Farrugia, of the Hellfire team, explained: “We have placed as much importance in the participants’ experience as we have on the actual competition. We want to make sure they return to race here again, and bring along their friends.”
There will be a post-race party, sponsored by Cisk Excel. Winners of the professional category will go home with over €6,000 in prize-money, while age-groupers will get a chance to take part in the World Championships in Hawaii in October.
All winners and finishers will be receiving tokens sponsored by Eurosport and Mdina Glass.
Garmin Malta has supported the route development and tracking, through the various nature reserves, under the strict observation of the Gaia Foundation, to ensure ecological safeguards are in place. The various local councils, MEPA, Maritime Authority and TransportMalta are all supporting the organisers.
The race venue is being set up by Casapinta Ltd with the support of the Malta Police Force.
KDM Travel will be coordinating the visitors’ hospitality while the Malta Red Cross will be ensuring that participants health and wellbeing is cared for.