Fabio Spiteri's bid to become the first Maltese triathlete to complete a Quintuple came to a disappointing end on Wednesday as he was forced to pull out of the second race due to stomach cramps.

The veteran athlete was one of seven triathletes who had registered to take part in the daunted Quintuple Challenge that would see them completing an ultra triathlon (3.8 kilometres, 180 kilometres bike and 42.2km run).

However, Spiteri on Wednesday announced that he was forced to retire from his challenge.

"Sadly my journey had to end here. I was in best shape, trained hard but on race day my body refused food and without nutrition the athlete can't function." he said on his facebook page.

"Started day 2 with no food the last 24hrs, I was just throwing up every time I ate to the point that on the bike I was losing power and getting dizzy. I failed big time as I had big expectations. I am gutted for all the sponsors who helped me out.

"My first DNF in ultra....really pissed off but onto the next one."

On Tuesday, the 45-year-old had ended his first ironman race in a time of 12 hours 23 minutes and one second.

Norway's Henning Olsrud topped the standings when completing the race in 10:21.11. Hungary's Ferenc Szony was second in 11:44.05 while Switzerland's Robert Vuketic completed the podium in 11:50.48.