Never give up and Never stop believing

Hi Everyone

Last Sunday the Birkirkara St Joseph Sprint Traithlon Series took off at Salina Bay. After an absence of 3 years the triathlons are back to salina. I was really looking forward to this race as I really wanted to do a very good time. I had a pretty good swim coming out of the water with the top swimmers. I tried to stay as much as i could with the relay swimmer to push myself more but at the same time not wasting so much energy

When i arrived in front of my bike for some reason i did not find my helmet and sunglasses, It was very  strange as it was not that windy. I panicked a bit but managed to find them but lost precious seconds. Whilst running with my bike to  the mount line trying to recover the time lost I noticed that there was not the rubber band on my shoes and had a very bad crash with my bike whilst mounting and damaged badly the rear changer

My back wheel was blocked as well. I thought that my race was over. I stayed calm and tried to arrange them as i could in order to continue the race. I managed to do so  but i could not push as much as i could as I was afraid to brake the rear changer. I was 2nd overall and had a disadvantage of nearly 2mins.

I was a bit confused after what happened so i slowed down and tried to settle my mind. After I got a bit into my normal race pace I was reducing my disadvantage and by the end of the bike segment i managed to get my opponent and I immediately attacked the last hill before transition area. I managed to open a gap and entered in transition area in first place and thanks to a very fast transition I increased my gap,

In the 5km Run I managed to increase more my lead to secure my 55th multi-sport win in Malta of my career. I am pleased with my performance after all what happened. Managing to win the race with a 2 minutes deficit means that I am in a very good form. I know that everyone thought that finally I am going to loose a race but I believe that nothing is impossible and one has to fight till the end.

I still believed that I could  win the race. I stayed calm and used my experience. I really wished to post a very good time but I am still satisfied by the way I managed to win the race, coming from behind and still win by a margin.

I would like to thank my coach Dermot Galea, my swimming coach Catalin Stan, my parents and my wife’s family, my masseur Owen Attard and my nutritionist Johanna Galea,  my sponsors Garmin Malta BBB Cycling Malta, Jaycee Malta, Mochika Outdoor Life, Lucida Laundry, dgtri.com, Starbene 24/7, Team Barry Malta International Challenge Marathon, his Club Birkirakara St Joseph, the Malta Triathlon Federation, the Maltese Olympic Committee and Sportmalta for the constant support. Most of all a  big thanks goes to my wife Elizabeth for her great support and patience

That's all for now

Yours in Sport

Keith

4th Place in the 3rd race of the Sicily Triathlon Series

Hi Everyone

Recently I participated in the third race of the Sicily Triathlon Series which was held in Augusta in the province of Syracuse. As in the previous races it attracted a lot of high profile athletes including pro athletes Ennio Salerno and Enrico Schiavino 

I had a very good start in the swim and I was keeping with the good swimmers but someone swam over me and I lost them. It took me a while to get back into the rhythm. Still I managed to register a personal best time . However the organizers opted for a longer swim and this was of a disadvantage for me as the leaders managed to open a wider gap than usual. I came out of the water in 7^th Place and thanks to a good 20km bike segment, managed to climb to 3^rd place.

I did my best to close  the gap from the two in front but since the race was draft legal the two were collaborating well whilst I  had to do everything alone as unfortunately I did not find no one along the way to work with. I started the 5km together with Schiavino, who stayed behind me for the whole duration of the bike

I did my best to get away from him but I was feeling the effects of the efforts done in the bike segment. I attacked schiavino in the hilly parts of the route but they were not effective. Schiavino left everything for the last 500m and managed to beat me by 20seconds thus loosing precious points from schiavino for the series. However I am still leading the series classification by 25 points from schiavino.

I am pleased with my performance especially in the swim as I registered a personal best but the swim was 1km instead of 750m and this enabled the leaders to open a wider gap compared to the previous races and compromised my race. I did my best to close the gap in the bike but luck was not on my side. When races are draft legal and you lose a lot of time it’s difficult to close the gap. If the distances were accurate it would have been a different story.

I did a big mistake by wasting a lot of energy on the bike and lost the 3^rd place due to tired legs. Seeing that I could not close the gap from the leaders, I had to think about the points for the series and rest a bit my legs on the bike to be able to give everything in the run and fight well for third place as it was important for the series classification. In every race there is always something new to learn even if you had a good performance. 

I would like to thank my coach Dermot Galea, my swimming coach Catalin Stan, my nutritionist Johanna Galea, my masseur Owen Attard, my parents and my wife’s parents, my sponsors Garmin Malta, BBB Cycling Malta, DGtri.com, Lucida Laundry, Team Barry Malta International Challenge Marathon, Mochika Outdoor Life, Jaycee Malta, starbene 24/7, my club Birkirkara St Joseph, the Malta Triathlon Federation, the Maltese Olympic Committee and Sportmalta for their constant support. Most of all a big thanks goes to my wife Elizabeth for her constant support and for her great patience with me

That's all for know

Yours in Sports

Keith