Amateur runner Kevin Muscat finished seventh in the 100-km Sahara five-day event last week, fulfilling a long-standing ambition to run 'off road' overseas.
Mr Muscat, 38, of L-Iklin, was originally part of a four-man team who were to face the challenge of running across the desert in Djerba, to the south of Tunisia. He ended up going it alone. After registering last November, he set his own training schedule, and clocked 140km a week on the roughest terrain he could identify locally.
Last Monday, 145 professional and amateur athletes from 14 countries set off from the old village of Chinini, to kick off the first of five legs of the 113-km distance to the Ksar Ghilane oasis, close to the border with Algeria.
On Friday, in freezing temperatures that lingered from the night before, Mr Muscat came in an hour after German Jorg Balle, a professional athlete who has won the race four times and set records along the stages over the years.
Mr Muscat clocked nine hours, 18 minutes in the five stages.
Speaking from Djerba where he was preparing to board a flight to Rome yesterday, Mr Muscat, a father of two who runs a marble works business, expressed his elation. "This was a personal challenge I set myself and it was satisfying to place seventh," Mr Muscat said.
The race is organised by an Italian tour company and the largest contingent was obviously Italian; the athletes rested in large, shared Berber tents along the route.
Mr Muscat said the runners faced extreme temperatures and difficult conditions in each leg.
"The first day was very hot and dry, so you do not perspire while running. The second leg included a night run. It was -3 degrees, raining, with cold wind. During the day, the wind kicked up the sand, and there was less than a metre's visibility. Throughout the event, there is no defined route, so there is the added challenge of choosing your own. Some opted to climb the sand dunes, others ran round them. Obviously you have to run barefoot here. It is a matter of digging your heels in."
Mr Muscat, who was expected home last night, has now set his sights on the 250-km, 36-hour Spartaton race in Greece.