Fabio Spiteri smashes his Deca national record by 31 hours, places second in Colmar

Fabio Spiteri smashed his national record on his way to finishing in second place at the Bretzel Ultra Triathlon Deca in Colmar, France, on Wednesday.

The Deca Ultratriathlon leads participants to a total distance of 2,260 kilometres, which corresponds to 10 times an Ironman race.

Athletes are embroiled in a 38km swim leg, a 1,800km bike ride, before rounding off with a 422km run, which is equivalent to 10 marathon races.

Spiteri managed to complete the distance in 233 hours, 10 minutes and 25 seconds to finish only behind Goulwenn Tristant, of France, who won the event in 222 hours 24 minutes, and 44 seconds.

Spiteri’s feat takes even more significance as he managed to smash his national record over the distance set in Lake Garda last year by a staggering 31 hours.

Last year, Spiteri completed the distance in 264 hours, 51 minutes, and 58 seconds.

It is surely a remarkable performance by Spiteri, who embarked on this challenge with the clear intention of considerably improving the result achieved last year.

Spiteri entered the race with the objective to lower his national record and achieve a top-five finish, thus attaining both objectives in some style.

The Bretzel Ultra Triathlon Deca in Colmar forms part of a bigger challenge set by Spiteri this year as he is looking to complete 23 Ironman distances in the space of only five months.

Apart from his participation in Colmar, Spiteri is now planning to compete in the triple Ironman in Austria next August.

Here Spiteri will attempt to swim 11.4km, embark on a biking leg of 540km, and run a further 126km.

After this race, Spiteri will head to Taiwan in November where he will compete in another Deca race.

As has been the case last year, Spiteri has attached a noble cause to his Ultra triathlon attempts this year as he once more launched Project 100, which is aimed at seeing him collect €100,000 for animal shelters among Malta and Gozo.