In mid-August Birkirkara St Joseph triathlete Keith Galea crossed swords with some of the best Belgian professional triathletes in the Lommel Olympic Triathlon in Belgium.
Lining up for this race were the likes of Gerrit Schellens, who has won this competition for the past five years and is the winner of this year’s Ironman South Africa.
Galea was breaking ground in such a high profile race, rubbing shoulders with elite triathletes.
The triathlon started with a 1,500m swim in a canal, where the triathletes had to take on relentless under-water currents.
Galea managed to stay with the main group, coming out of the water in 17th place in 19 minutes 30 seconds.
Following a quick swim-to-bike transition, the Birkirkara triathlete was out on the 40-kilometre route around the town of Lommel. The course was very technical with a number of sharp turns and a segment on cobblestones.
In this part of the race Galea lost 10 places, struggling hard to manoeuvre round the corners and cobblestones on his time-trial bike, reaching transition area unscathed after one hour, four minutes of rigorous cycling.
Starting the final 10-kilometre run, Galea set himself a demanding pace in order to recover those precious minutes he lost in the cycle. He ran the distance in 38 minutes 20 seconds, to finish the race in the 21st place in an overall time of two hours, five minutes, 32 seconds.
Returning to England, Galea took part in the final race, which was the Hardwick Sprint Triathlon.
It was another race which attracted a number of professional triathletes, among them Junior Heffernan, an Irish Elite Triathlete who eventually won the race, and James McMahon, another triathlete sponsored by Total Fitness Nottingham.
The race in Belgium took its toll on Galea’s bike and he had to compete with a different bike in this final race. In the 750-metre swim, Galea clocked a personal best time of nine minutes, 19 seconds, finishing in ninth place.
Finding his new bike rather strange to handle, Galea threw caution to the wind and sped around the 21.5-kilometre course in the town of Redditch in 33 minutes and 50 seconds, significantly closing the gap on the race leaders as he reached transition area in seventh place.
The final five-kilometre run was on a daunting three-lap gravel-covered course with a steep hill at the end of each lap. Unperturbed by the task ahead, he set off chasing the leaders, gaining on them with every lap.
He finished the run in 17 minutes 55 seconds, climbing to fourth place overall and second in his age group, in one hour, three minutes, 25 seconds. He missed third place by 25 seconds to Britain’s Mark Sims, beating fifth placed James McMahon of Total Fitness Nottingham by three minutes.
Back in Malta, Galea will be concentrating on a full programme of local races and the forthcoming Friendship Games in Sicily next week.