Elite Mile & Locals’ MileThere is a handful of athletes capable of breaking the magic four-minute mile mark lining up. Last year’s runner-up English runner Neil Speaight ran a 3:58 mile indoors in 2006 and was regarded as one of the UK’s top three 800m runners from 2002 to 2005. Last year he was ranked the 12th best UK metric miler (1,500m) with a time of 3:40.

Third-placed last year was Kenya’s Geoffrey Rono, he is back again as is two-times winner Welshman Jamie Thie. He has run a mile, both indoors and outdoors, in 3:57 although those times were set in 2003 and 2004. However Thie ran four minutes exactly for an indoor mile in New York a week after last year’s International Race Weekend.

Russian Alexander Skvortsov, with a best of 3:57, has to be a favourite, but there isn’t much to choose between any of the athletes with others lining up including Kenya’s Jackson Langet (3:58), and American Joel Williams (3:39 for 1,500m).

Colombia’s Edgar Bermudez has been lined up as the pace-setting ‘rabbit’.

In the local men’s mile Lamont Marshall will defend his title, which he won with a blistering 4:23 last year.

The women’s race would appear to be a battle between Victoria Fiddick and Joanna Shillington.

10KTraining partners Jorge Torres and Rod Koborsi will be amongst the names to watch. The two Americans have track personal bests over 10,000m of 28 minutes and 14 seconds and 28:32 respectively.

Torres, 26, is the 2006 US track champion having set his best in the 10,000m final in Indianapolis. He is coached by Colorado-based Brad Hudson, who has a training group in the high-altitude city of Boulder that features a number of Olympic athletes and US national champions.

Torres, a native of Illinois, will start as race favourite on the strength of his US champion status and formidable track times for 10,000m, as well as a 5,000m best of 13:20 and a 1,500m of 3:42.

His training buddy Koborsi, 23, who originally hails from Texas, is a former US junior 5,000m champion and has a string of titles from the eastern US region to his name. As well his 10,000m best he has previously turned in a 5,000m of 13:26 and last year took part in international athletics meetings in Italy, Belgium and England.

Another US athlete is Carl Kinney, who was the surprise winner of last Sunday’s Fairmont-to-Fairmont road race, and has a 10k best around 29:20 and a 5k of 14:10. Like Torres he is coached by Brad Hudson.

As good as the Americans are, they will not have it all their own way.

At his best Joseph Hgetich (Kenya) is a match for US champ Torres having run a 28:13 time for 10,000m in Eldoret, Kenya last year, and another prominent name is Ukraine’s Mikola Antonenko who ran a 2:13 marathon in Japan in 2006.

Guernsey athlete Lee Merrien is another in-form name to watch having won a Boxing Day 10k race in Poole, England, in a personal best of 30:08.

Welshman Jamie Thie is back. His best 10k road time is 30:36, which he set in 2005. He was ranked the world’s 67th fastest metric miler last year. And Russian Alexander Skvortsova is another likely to challenge the 30-minute mark.

Amongst the women the name to watch is undoubtedly Katie McGregor, the 2005 US 10,000m champion who has best of 31:21 for the distance.

She is no stranger to the Bermuda 10k course either, having won in 2003 when she clocked 34:03.

Reigning women’s champion Silvia Skvortsova won last year in 34:51 and went on to win the half-marathon the following day.

It was hoped that Morocco’s Kenza Wabi and US runner Lisa Pratt would race, but both have been ruled out with injury. Organisers are hopeful of arranging two quality replacements from Romania to take part.

Watch out also for Victoria Jackson (USA), two-times Bermuda Marathon winner Olena Plastina (Ukraine) and Tatyana Chulakh (Russia), who won the Barbados 10K in December in a personal best of 32:26.

Half-MarathonUkraine distance specialist Mikola Antonenko ran a 2:13 marathon in Japan last year, so would appear capable of something in the region of 1:05 for the half-distance and that would put him right in the mix with England’s David Mitchinson who ran 1:06 when he came third in last year’s race. Mitchinson ran 2:18 in last April’s London Marathon.

Kenya’s Kiptoech Ruto has run a 1:04:22 half-marathon in Nairobi, which appears to be the fastest “on paper” time of any entrant. Another name to watch is Serbia’s Predrag Mladenovic who has won several half-marathons and 10K events during the past 12 months.

Women’s champion Silvia Skvortsova ran 1:18:19 to secure the 2006 title only a day after claiming the 10K crown. She was ranked ninth best in the world over the distance in 2006.

Amongst local athletes Jay Donowa, who was sixth last year, is again the leading name for Bermuda. In the latter half of 2006 he ran two 1:10 half-marathons in Philadelphia.

And in the women’s race Victoria Fiddick, who was second local last year in a time only a few seconds over 1:30, appears to be the leading name this time around.

MarathonFive-times winner El Afousi Boubker, of Morocco, ran 2:23:59 last year and will start as the favourite because of his fast times and his knowledge of the race course. But here again there appear to be rivals with even better pedigrees over the marathon distance.

Russian Eduard Tukhbatullin has a personal best of 2:12:07 and last year he ran three marathons in 2:19. Kenya’s Fred Gatange has a best time of 2:13 and Ukrainian Edward Gapak, who only a week ago won an impressive 30K road race in the Ukraine in 1:37, set his best marathon time of 2:29 in New York when he was 19. He is now 22 and could be a surprise package in the men’s race.

The women’s race will be a fierce event with any one from at least five international athletes in contention for the crown.

Russian champion Sarmasova Vinero ran 2:39 to claim her national title and could prove the stiffest test for defending race champ and fellow countrywoman Svetlana Baigulova, who was outrun by only two men last year as she clocked 2:47:34 in testing conditions.

Another Russian, Sarmasova Vinera, who won the Moscow Marathon in 2006, in 2:39, and American Stephanie Hodge, who was runner-up in the Bermuda Marathon in both 2004 and 2005, has run 2:54 as a Master-category athlete.

Amongst local runners this year’s marathon has caught the attention of many of the Island’s best, with former May 24 Marathon Derby champion and 1994 Commonwealth Games marathoner Brett Forgesson, leading Master Peter Mills, and sub-three hour marathoner Danny Kendall amongst those due to compete.

The women’s race will see current May 24 champion and sub-three marathoner Dawn Richardson attempting her second marathon in the space of a month having taken part in December’s Las Vegas event. Another Vegas’ veteran seeking to a second marathon in quick succession is Lisa Van Wanrooy.