Record-Breaking Maltese Athlete To Compete In International Triathlon For Super Cute Rescue Dogs
Fabio Spiteri is a Maltese athlete on a mission. This Friday he will be competing in this year’s Finals for the International Triple Ultra Triathlon in Lensahn, Germany. This means that he will be performing an 11.4 kilometre swim, a 540 kilometre bike ride and 126.6 kilometres of running non-stop.
Although this is the first time for him to compete in the Ultra, Fabio is not new to these events. Last year he partook in the Double Ironman, which consisted of a 7.4 kilometre swim, 360 kilometres of cycling and an 84 kilometre run.
He made us all very proud of him by breaking a national record, by finishing the whole thing in just 26 hours and 38 minutes.
Fabio trains professionally and his sessions are gruelling to say the least. This guy cycles around Sicily in just three days, swims from Malta to Gozo regularly and also performs 80 kilometre runs just for fun. “Sometimes I get to train for 30 hours a week, but I have some easy weeks too,” he told us.
“For my last session I ran around all of Gozo, swam from there to Malta and ran from Ċirkewwa to Birżebbuġa in just six hours,” he said “Generally I get 12 weeks of really hard work, and two weeks with hardly no training at all in order to be fresh for the competition.” He told us.
For this year’s Ultra, Fabio will be amongst the 54 athletes from 18 different countries, and we’re totally rooting for him.
But it’s not just us who will be supporting this great athlete. Fabio is doing this for an amazing cause he really holds close to his heart: cute fluffy dogs.
Fabio’s great feats are done for a cause, “Whenever I finish a big race I ask people to donate to the AAA. I raise awareness and try to promote the shelter, it’s something which is very dear to me.” Fabio said
“Currently they have around 80 rescue dogs up for adoption. I help them out occasionally in person too, they need both resources and finances, so every little counts” he told Lovin Malta.
Animals are clearly something which he holds close at heart. Fabio has two Persian cats and two super cute dogs and apart from that he even shared a heart-wrenching story with us which will probably make you cry.
“I was cycling in Sicily a while back as training. I was halfway through when I found out that a puppy was trapped in a hole in the ground,” he said “I had to get him out of there and since I was in the middle of nowhere I had to travel with him on my bike for 20 kilometres.”
“I tried bringing him with me to Malta, but I was not allowed to do so. Instead I tried to find a home for him back in Sicily,” Fabio said.
“Eventually he was adopted by the owners of the guest house I was staying at in Pozzallo.” he told us.
Isn’t that the cutest story ever or what?
We’ll be rooting for Fabio during this weekend’s triathlon, and you should too! Help him by donating to AAA.
You can donate by sending an SMS on any of these numbers
- 5061 7350 to donate €2.33
- 5061 8060 to donate €4.66
- 5061 8910 to donate €6.99
- 5061 9200 to donate €11.65
You can also subscribe for a monthly donation directly from your PayPal account here.
Do you know anyone who loves both sports and dogs? Tag them in the comments below!
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