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56 BIRKIRKARA St. Joseph Sports Club triathletes Keith Galea and Michelle Vella Wood claimed vic- tory in Birzebbuga in the recently held National Sprint Triathlon Championships, organized by Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club under the auspices of the National Triathlon Federation. As was expected Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club triathlete Keith Galea was first out of the water, followed closely by Pembroke Athleta's Hannah Pace. Galea's fellow Club mates Graham Borg and Shaun Galea, the latter fresh from his Cross Triathlon National Championships victory, were next. Mellieha AC's Margaret Seguna was second female out from the 750m swim. Michelle Vella Wood was the third female to enter into transition twelve minutes after the swim. The 20km cycle leg saw some shifts in positions with gaps nar- rowing in both the male and female categories. As has been the case in the previ- ous Sprint Triathlon races held in this course, Birkirkara's Graham Borg, registered the fastest time on the hilly course, covering the distance in thirty one minutes and twenty seconds. Galea hot on Borg's heels, managed a super fast transi- tion to exit into the run segment two seconds faster than Borg. Showing his strength and deter- mination, Galea built up a steady tempo in the 5k run to widen the gap between him and Borg, ena- bling him to finish the race, and be crowned Sprint Triathlon Cham- pion, in a time of 1 hour 1 minute 9 seconds. Borg completed the course in 1 hour 2 minutes and 58 seconds to clinch second place on the podium. Although third place on the podium seemed reserved for veteran triathlete Fabio Spiteri (Agones SFC), a decisive and deter- mined sprint in the last few metres before the finish line saw Birkirka- ra's Under 17 triathlete Shaun Galea pip Spiteri to the last avail- able place on the podium, making it an all Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club podium. In the Female's race, Birkirkara St. Joseph's Michelle Vella Wood reserved the largest surprise of the day. Although finishing off the 750m swim, approximately one minute and fifteen seconds behind favourite title contender Hannah Pace, Vella Wood gave a very de- termined and skilful performance in the cycling segment where she narrowed the gap between her and Pace. Vella Wood entered into the second transition to head for the run ahead of Pace. From then it was clear for whom the first two places on the podium were going to be reserved for. This spurred on Vella Wood further, for her to clinch the title of Female Sprint Triathlon Champion in a time of 1 hour 8 minutes 45 seconds. Pace completed the course in 1 hour ten minutes, followed by Margaret Se- guna who completed the podium in third place. The battle between Vella Wood and Pace was an interesting one, as both athletes have been focusing on longer distance triathlon. Pace was the first Maltese female to qualify for the 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championships whilst Vella Wood is the first Maltese female to com- pete in the Pro category in Ironman 70.3 and Ironman races. The Race also saw seven relay teams take part. The first team to complete the course was made up of Luke Camilleri Cuschieri (Swim), Pierre Borg (Cycle) and Matthew Rota (Run). The presentation of Trophies and medals to the winners of the race and various Age Group Categories took place immediately after the race in the presence of the Hon. Chris Agius, Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport and the President of the Malta Triathlon Federation, Cyprian Dalli. Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 ATHLETICS TENNIS Keith Galea and Vella Wood crowned National Sprint Triathlon champions (L-R) - 2nd Place - Hannah Pace, 1st Place - Michelle Vella Wood, 3rd Place - Margaret Seguna (L-R) - 2nd Place - Graham Borg, 1st Place - Keith Galea, 3rd Place - Shaun Galea PHOTOGRAPHY BY MALTA TRIATHLON FEDERATION Begu and Sasnovich to meet in Korea Open final ALIAKSANDRA Sasnovich con- tinued her giant-killing run at the Korea Open on Saturday, up- setting second see Anna Karo- lina Schmiedlova to reach her first WTA final. The Belarusian, who had to come through the qualifiers to get into the main draw, followed up her earlier wins over Sloane Stephens and Alexandra Dulgheru with a 3-6 6-3 6-3 semi-final victory over Schmiedlova. Ranked 136th in the world, Sas- novich has won 11 titles on the second tier ITF tour but had nev- er made it to a quarter-finals of a WTA event before this week. "I wasn't serving really well to- day, and I wasn't playing my best tennis, but I was concentrated. I really wanted to win the match," Sasnovich said. "I just kept trying to find some way to win today. "It's really exciting for me to be in my first WTA final -- it's going to be a really nice day for me tomor- row (Sunday)." Her opponent in Sunday's final will be the top seed, Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, who charged into the title match with a compre- hensive 6-0 6-2 win over Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck. Begu is chasing her second ca- reer WTA title after winning the Tashkent Open in 2012 and is not underestimating her in-form rival. "It doesn't matter if she's a quali- fier or a main draw player, she's in the finals, and she's had a really good week," Begu said. "It's definitely going to be a tough match. In a final you always have to expect a tough match. It's never easy. But I'm feeling ready. We'll see what happens." Aliaksandra Sasnovich Overall Results Males 1st - Keith Galea (Birkirkara St. Joseph) 2nd - Graham Borg (Birkirkara St. Joseph) 3rd - Shaun Galea (Birkirkara St. Joseph) Females 1st - Michelle Vella Wood (Birkirkara St. Joseph) 2nd - Hannah Pace (Pembroke Athleta) 3rd - Margaret Seguna (Mellieha AC) Age Group Winners - Males 1st Under 23 - Neil Markham 1st Over 40 - Fabio Spiteri (Agones SFC) 1st Over 50 - Jude Zammit (Agones SFC) Age Group Winners - Females 1st Under 23 - Nina Zammit 1st Over 50 - Suzanne Farrugia (Birkirkara st. Joseph) The National Sprint Triathlon Championships also formed part of the Birkirkara St. Joseph Sports Club Sprint Triathlon Series, the last race of which will take place on Sunday 27th September in Birzebbugia at 08:00hrs. More information on the Series can be found on www.bkarastjoseph.com.