Keith Galea had the experience of a lifetime last weekend when he won all Age-Groups at the African Tria-thlon Championships (ATC) which were held at Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia.
Galea's team-mates, Danica Spiteri and Fabio Spiteri, also had very positive results with the former winning her age group and finishing the women's race second overall. Fabio Spiteri was second in his age group and fourth overall.
Twenty-four athletes from South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Morocco, Italy and Malta, lined up for the start of the championships which saw the athletes swim 1,500m, cycle 40km and run 10km.
Galea finished the swim fifth overall but it took him less than two laps of the bike segment to put all his opponents behind him. From then on there was no looking back for the 20-year-old who went on to win in 2:05.57.
Both Danica and Fabio experienced difficulties in the swim. However, while Danica managed to hang on to her second place to finish in a time of 2:23, Fabio overtook three others in the cycle and was fast closing the gap on the one in front of him.
In the end, however, he had to settle for a creditable fourth placing.
The Elite Race, which was held the day before, was won by Hendrik De Villiers from South Africa in 1:50:53.
The women's race was won by Marie Rabie, also of South Africa, in 2:04:00. Thanks to their victories, both De Villiers and Rabie earned automatic qualification for the Beijing Olympics in August.
In the meantime, Manuel Azzo-pardi, president of the Malta Triathlon Association, who accompanied the national team to Tunisia, attended high-level meetings with officials from the International Triathlon Union regarding such varying issues as the setting up of a Mediterranean Triathlon Championship, the inclusion of triathlon in the Mediterranean Games and Sports Development Schemes.
The presence of the Maltese team in Tunisia had the double goal of showing solidarity with the newly-founded Tunisian Triathlon Federation and establishing contacts with the Tunisian athletes with the aim that they will participate in the ChooseMalta.com National Triathlon Championship here in October.