Fabio Spiteri places fifth in Quintuple race at Bretzel Ultra Triathlon Championships

Fabio Spiteri has just completed another feat in his remarkable career after placing fifth in the Quintuple at the Bretzel Ultra Triathlon Championships held in Colmar, France.

The experienced Maltese ultra triathlete again defied the odds to complete the draining race, which consisted of participants completing a total of five Ironman races, in 92 hours four minutes and 29 seconds.

To put into perspective the difficulty of Spiteri’s feat, the Maltese veteran had to complete a 19-kilometre swim leg followed by a bike segment that is 900km long before finishing off with a 211km run.

 Contacted by the Times of Malta, Spiteri said that he was pleased with his performance, particularly as he managed to break his national record by a staggering 19-hour margin.

“During the swim segment, which was 19km long, I felt really strong and managed to complete the distance in six hours 55 minutes and 35 seconds to come out of the water in fourth place,” Spiteri told the Times of Malta.

“In the 900km segment, I felt really good physically and was determined to have minimal breaks. I only stopped for ten minutes every four hours and slept two hours each night. In the end I cycled the distance in 45 hours 30 minutes and 46 seconds. That performance on the bike was six hours faster than what I managed in 2022.”

After those gruelling legs, Spiteri faced the prospect of another tiring stage of his race, the run segment, which saw him run five successive marathons for a total distance of 211 kilometres.

Spiteri admitted that during the run segment fatigue kicked in, particularly in the latter stages.

“The run consisted in five successive marathons for a total of 211km,” Spiteri said.

“For the first three marathons I managed to run really hard but then fatigue and lack of sleep kicked in the last two marathons where I struggled to move forward.

“I was also hallucinating slightly during the night due to lack of sleep. Imagine I had only slept for seven hours in four days.

“But in the end I managed managed to cross the finish line in 92hrs and place fifth at a world championship.

“This time was only possible with the great help and motivation from my crew Philip Cachia and Silvio Sciberras.”

 Spiteri said that his participation in Colmar was part of his journey towards competing in the Italy Deca Ultra Triathlon that will see him attempt to complete ten ironman races in a row.

“In eight weeks’ time I will be travelling to Italy to take part in the Italy Deca Ultra Triathlon race,” Spiteri.

“So far I have never managed to finish a Deca which consists of a 38km swim, 1,800k bike and a 422km run. To give you a picture of how tough this race is, only ten athletes from around the world have applied for it.”

Spiteri said that all his efforts are aimed towards a noble cause, that of collecting funds for animal sanctuaries.

“I have a fundraising goal, named Project 100 that will run until the end of September,” Spiteri said.

“My target is to raise €100,000 for animal sanctuaries. So far I have collected €19,000. All the money that will be raised will be distributed in medicine and food for 40 animal shelters, individual cat feeders and 150 kennels for stray cats around the island.

“I appeal to all animal lovers in Malta to keep helping me to reach this objective.”

If anyone would like to help, they can send their donation as follows:

Revolut: +356 99816248 

Paypal: rarmalta@gmail.com

Paypal: https://paypal.me/RealAnimalRights?locale.x=en_US

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Bank Transfer

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Fabio Spiteri is sponsored by Royal Canin Malta, GasanMamo Insurance, Betclic, Visit Malta, ProUp, Wheel Wizard (Malta), Eurosport Malta, Garmin Malta, Go&Fun Green Energy Drink, ABUS Cycling, Rise Physio +, For A Cause Events and 24/7 Fitness Club