Last weekend, athlete Ryan Mex reached his goal of crossing Malta in under two hours. Mr Mex impressively ran from Ċirkewwa to Pretty Bay, Birżebbuġa, in 1 hour 58 minutes.

Sharing the accomplishment on Facebook, the athlete described the 30km run as a “dream come true of local accomplishment.”

“Super glad one of my long-time bucket list runs has been completed,” he said.

Although the journey was long, it was carefully planned. He recalled extensive preparation, including finding the perfect route, testing and timing segments, and importantly, exercising patience to wait for the right day.

He commented that the route had some trail sections with 550m elevation gain, which makes the journey more difficult.

“The riskiest part is running in roads with traffic, an obstacle which can never be underestimated. Running on open roads is very dangerous – so had to always keep my awareness on alert for passing cars and when crossing roads,” he said.

Mr Mex is an obstacle course racing (OCR) athlete who won ‘The Grid’ eight times, has nine international OCR wins under his belt, participated in the ‘Gozo Ultra Trail’ (50k) twice, placed second in the ‘AG Spartan European Championship 2021’, placed second in the ‘Cappadocia Ultra Trail (63km)’, and participated in various other competitions.

Furthermore, he is a Malta National Team athlete who was the ‘Trail Running National Champion’ for three consecutive years between 2017 and 2019.