Triathlete Kai Azzopardi places fourth at Commonwealth Youth Games

The Maltese contingent at the Commonwealth Youth Games, currently taking place in Trinidad and Tobago, finished the first day of competition on a high when the Malta selection produced highly-satisfactory results in the Super Sprint Triathlon race held at the Buccoo Beach Facility.

Competing amongst 25 triathletes, Kai Azzopardi and Ryan Muscat raced in the men’s category in sweltering heat.

Azzopardi put up a very strong performance that saw him just miss out on a place on the podium, when he was narrowly edged out by Jack Latham, of Australia. 

Azzopardi finished the race in fourth position in 30 minutes 53 seconds.

Azzopardi, who exited the water in 10th place, slowly climbed up the ranks in the bike leg, which saw him enter transition in fourth place.

In the run, Azzopardi looked close to getting third place but was pipped to the post by Australia’s Latham.

The race was won by Luke Holmes, of Jersey, in 29 minutes 47 seconds ahead of Alex Robin, of Scotland, and Latham.

Ryan Muscat finished in 17th place. He climbed up to thirteenth place on the bike, having finished the swim in 18th place but slipped down to 17th place to finish in a time of 33:29.

Earlier on in the morning, Keira Attard also produced a good result for Malta when she finished in 11th place among 21 athletes in the girls’ race.

Attard exited the water in 16th place but slowly started moving up finishing the bike leg in 13th place and subsequently moving up two places to finish in 11th place.

Attard finished the race in 36 minutes and 18 seconds.

The competition was won by Aspen Anderson, of Australia, in 32 minutes 53 seconds before Jessica Heep, of Scotland, and Namibia’s Maja Brinkmann.

Team Malta will be in action today when Azzopardi and Attard will compete in the Mixed Relay.