The 20th Malta International Challenge gets underway this afternoon with the first leg, a 11.195km run starting from Mdina at 1 p.m.

The Malta International Challenge boasts a unique format as it’s a marathon spread over three days. This year’s edition has attracted a 150-strong field, 100 Maltese athletes and the rest foreigners.

The second stage, covering a distance of 6km, will take place tomorrow in the Birżebbuġa area, starting at noon, and the concluding leg on Sunday is a 25km run from St Paul’s Bay to Valletta. Sunday’s run sets off at 7 a.m.

“Twenty years! To be honest, it seems like yesterday when we held race registration in the car park at Mdina before the start of stage one of the first ‘Challenge’ way back in 1991,” race founder and director Barry M. Whitmore wrote in the event’s programme.

Whitmore has announced that Joelle Cortis, who was recently crowned Miss Malta, will be among the participants at this year’s Malta International Challenge.

Englishman Dale Rixon holds the record for most wins, six in all, while Maltese athletes Carol Walsh and Carmen Hili jointly lead the women’s all-time winners’ list with four successes.

The Challenge record, 2hrs 15mins 49 secs, was set by Rixon in the 1992 edition.