The Malta Triathlon Federation has established an agreement with the European Triathlon Union to provide the country’s promising athletes an opportunity to attend international training camps.

Over the past four years, there were already 10 young triathletes who attended such training camps abroad.

This year, Nikol Micallef was selected to take part in a similar training stint in Spain.

He was joined by his Malta Youth Triathlon Academy coach Barry Farrugia for the trip.

For Micallef this was not his first experience abroad having already been selected for a similar stage in Hungary last summer.

Micallef and Farrugia joined a team of more than 30 other youth athletes and coaches from all over Europe.

“I was very excited when I learned that I will be attending this training camp along with my MYTA coach Barry Farrugia,” Micallef said.

“When we arrived in Alicante I was astonished not only with the number of athletes participating but also with the quality and standard of the others involved.

“We were training practically three times a day, like professional athletes – starting the day with a swimming session followed by a run.

“Then we usually went cycling in the late afternoon. The highlight of the camp was cycling inside a velodrome. I never imagined I could do that before.”

Farrugia was equally satisfied with the Alicante training stint.

“It was a useful experience having the possibility to coach a splendid group of athletes and sharing the knowledge of triathlon-training with the other coaches,” he said.

“I am truly grateful for the great opportunity that the federation and MYTA gave Nikol and myself, and I am looking forward to share all I’ve learnt with our athletes at the academy.”

The MYTA currently caters for 35 athletes of various ages, between seven and 15 years.

Training is held at the Kirkop Sports Complex and the National Pool. Athletes have three sessions a week in their programme.

More information can be obtained via info@triathlonmalta.org.