Costa Rican triathlon athlete Leonardo Chacón finished sixth in the XTERRA World Championship race that took place today in Maui, Hawaii.

The XTERRA competition is an off-road triathlon, which combines a 1.5 km (1 mile) swim, 32 km (20mi) mountain bike trail and a 10.5 km (6.5 mi) trail run. The XTERRA World Championship race is the last in a series of more than 100 off-road triathlon races held in 30 countries and 38 U.S. states.

This is the first time the Costa Rican participates in this off road world championship, he had previously participated and won the USA Championship.

Leo suffered seven falls and in one of them he lost his hydrating bottle, so he had to go on without it; weather played a big role in this competition as there was heavy rain in the days prior to the competition and therefore the route was muddy.

“I am not giving any excuses; I take this as a learning experience and an opportunity to improve. The level of the athletes was so high that I finished with just a 10 second difference from las year’s world champion Josiah Middaugh. I hope I can improve my ability in mountain bike and give you a reason to celebrate next year; for this I am going to suffer three days of the Ruta de los Conquistadores which is coming up in a week”, posted Leonardo on his Facebook page.

This year’s male champion was Mexican Mauricio Mendez with a mark of 2:49:38 while Spanish Ruben Ruzafa took the second position 2:51:02 and Australian Ben Allen the third place with 2:53:49. Leonardo’s time was 2:57:14

Leonardo Chacón will be participating in La Ruta de los Conquistadores, the most important and the hardest Mountain Bike competition in Costa Rica and will take place November 3-5.