Fabio Spiteri achieved a life-time dream after winning his first national duathlon championship in the very last few metres of the race held recently at Birzebbuga.

Danica Spiteri also had a daunting task ahead but in the end managed to hang on to the title she won last year.

On a mild morning, 28 athletes set off for the start of the race, which saw them run 5kms, cycle 27kms and run again 3kms.

As anticipated, Brian Magri, Keith Galea and Spiteri were going to challenge for the men's title, up for grabs since 2007 champion, Dermot Galea, is still recovering from injury.

It was Magri who had the fastest overall time of 16m:44s in the first run.

In the cycle, Galea quickly forged ahead to return to transition in first place. His advantage over Spiteri, however, proved to be too marginal to be effective as the latter nullified it and went on to win in 1:10:35. Galea had to settle for second, just 10 seconds behind, and Magri, a further 45 seconds adrift.

In the women's race, Danica Spiteri's advantage of one minute over Donatelle Callus at the end of the first run proved to be insufficient as the latter went on to register the fastest cycle time of 48m:31s to reach transition 45 seconds ahead of her main rival.

However, the last run proved to be decisive, as Spiteri again forged ahead to win the race in 1:23:38, just 25 seconds ahead of Callus. Third place went to Michelle Wood who finished the race in 1:31:17.

The Team Event was won by the Galea brothers, Johann (runner) and David (cyclist).

They covered the distance in 1:08:57. The category for seniors was won by Daniel Callus in 1:19:47.

The Malta Triathlon Association had BBB Bike Parts and Kristal Water as the sponsors of the day. The safety aspect of the race was in the hands of the St James Hospital staff.