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