Spiteri closing on feat, completes swim, bike legs in daunting Quintuple challenge

Fabio Spiteri is moving closer to achieving an unprecedented feat in the history of Maltese sport as the experienced triathlete has completed the first two legs of the daunting Quintuple in Colmar, France.

Spiteri is bidding to become the first Maltese athlete to complete a Quintuple, which in simple words means to complete five successive ironman races in succession.

The Maltese athlete is just one of 16 triathletes who started the race last Monday.

Participants have to swim 19 kilometres, which is like swimming from Malta to Gozo three times, cycle a 900km route, which is equivalent to riding around Sicily, before finishing off with five full marathons for a distance of 211 kilometres.

On Wednesday, Spiteri managed to complete successfully both the swimming leg and the cycling stint.

In fact, Spiteri managed to swim the 19km leg in a time of seven hours and two minutes which placed him seventh overall.

Then he embarked on the cycling leg and Spiteri managed to complete the 900km route on Wednesday afternoon and is currently in fifth place with a combined time of 58 hours three minutes and 29 seconds.

Now Spiteri has one final leg coming up, the 211km run and if he manages to complete he will have attained something unthinkable for a Maltese athlete so far.

For the 48-year-old this is his second attempt to complete a Quintuple. Two years ago he tried a similar feat but a stomach bug forced him to retire during the cycling leg.

The Quintuple has a double meaning for Spiteri as apart from the satisfaction of reaching new technical heights with his achievement he is also looking to collect funds for his second passion of his life – animals

In fact, Spiteri is looking to collect the sum of €100,000 that will be split among 29 shelters around Malta and Gozo.

Anyone who would like to contribute to Spiteri’s cause can do so in the following way – Revolut: +356 99816248; Paypal: rarmalta@gmail.com; SMS donations €2.33 | 50617312; €4.66 | 50618075; €6.99 | 50618923; €11.65 | 50619260; Bank Transfer: BOV IBAN : MT40VALL22013000000050010082877.