Birkirkara St. Joseph triathletes Dermot Galea, Barry Farrugia and Luke Bonnici registered outstanding performances last Sunday in the 70.3 Ironman in Antwerp, Belgium, with national champion Galea registering the best time ever achieved by a Maltese triathlete on these distances.

The first segment of the race was a 1.9-kilometre swim in the Antwerp city lake. Galea finished the swim in 25 minutes, 38 seconds, followed by Bonnici in 26 minutes, 40 seconds and Farrugia in a time of 34 minutes, one second.

After a rather long run to transition area, Galea started to push up the pace on the flat bike course, finishing the 90 kilometres in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 16 seconds. Farrugia finished this bike segment in 2 hours, 34 minutes, a few seconds faster than Bonnici. Galea started the final 21-kilometre run in 88th place overall. However, by the end of the triathlon, he managed to finish in the 68th position out of the 1,000 triathletes starting the race, achieving a personal best time on this distance. His four hours, 22 minutes, 30 seconds is also the best time ever registered by a Maltese triathlete in a half-Ironman. Galea classified in the 13th place overall in the 30–34 age-group.

Barry Farrugia ran the half-marathon in a good time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, to finish his first half-Ironman in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 46seconds in the 305th place in the overall classification and 42nd in his age-group. Bonnici who was also experiencing his first half-Ironman finished in a time of 4 hours, 57 minutes, 37 seconds, placing himself 18th in his age-group and 335th overall. These results confirm the improvement Maltese triathletes are also registering in international long distance events, following their various successful achievements in Olympic distance triathlons.

The next international race for Dermot Galea will be Ironman Wales on 16 September.