Race Weekend.

When Marcos Baretto outdueled American Ed Eyestone to win the 1992 ADT Bermuda 10K, it was the first time the Mexican had ever set foot on the Island's international course. This year, 32-year-old Baretto says he is in even better shape and with last year's experience to draw on, is likely to once again be the man to beat. But Marcos Baretto has more on his mind than just retaining his Bermuda title. He has his sights on becoming Mexico's top marathoner ~~- no small ambition in a nation that has in recent years produced the likes of Salvador Garcia, winner of the 1991 New York City Marathon, and former national recordholder Alejandro Cruz, winner of the 1988 Chicago Marathon and the 1989 runner-up in the Rotterdam Marathon, the world's fastest course.

After his victory in Bermuda last year, Baretto spent less time on the track where he had represented Mexico in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the Seoul Olympics, and concentrated on his first attempts at the 26.2-mile marathon. He placed 11th in Chicago in two hours, 20 minutes and 20th in New York City, slightly improving his time to 2:19. "Chicago was a flat course but New York was difficult because it was only my second time in a marathon and the course has a lot of hills,'' Baretto said in a telephone interview from his family home in Poluca, an hour and a half's drive from the polluted congestion of Mexico City. "Maybe for a good time, I need to run five or six marathons.

Garcia and Cruz started out running 2:20, 2:25.'' Baretto plans to return to New York this year and in 1996 to run the Olympic Marathon in Atlanta, where he now lives with wife and coach Angeles, who is studying for her masters in sports science at the University of Georgia, and their two-year-old son Marcos Jr. "I'm training in Atlanta because I'm interested in running the Olympic Marathon and training here will help me adapt to the conditions.'' But Baretto, a full time runner in search of a sponsor since finishing his studies in anthropology, admits the lure of prize money in the Big Apple is greater than the glitter of Olympic gold. "I want to run in the Olympics again but there is so much money to be won in New York. Even second place is $15,000.'' And $15,000 goes a long way south of the border.

Victory in Bermuda would net him a mere $1,000 but Baretto says on this occasion the money is not important. "Bermuda is a good race because it's difficult,'' says Baretto, who pulled away from Eyestone, the 1991 winner, in the final mile up Palmetto Road to win in 29 minutes and 23 seconds. "The first half of the race is downhill and the second is uphill. You need speed for the downhill part and you need good running and stamina for the hills in the second half. Everybody runs very good in the first part but uphill is very tough. You need good concentration.'' Baretto adds: "This year I am training more kilometres (about 95 to 100 miles a week) and also working in the gym, swimming, training in the mountains. I am training physically and psychologically for any race. I am running faster this year and I know the course after last year. I have the experience now. I'm training on more hills because this race is different from races in the United States. In the US, nine out of 10 races are flat.'' If Baretto's recent times are anything to go by, he may take some catching in Bermuda. In late November he ran 28:45 for a 10K road race in Mexico, finishing fifth, and earlier in the year clocked 28:08 for a 10,000 metres track race in Vancouver and 13:40 over 5,000 metres in Victoria, British Columbia, his best times over the past two years. His best-ever track time for 10,000 stands at 27:50.

After Bermuda, he will be heading to Florida for the Gasparilla 15K, a race he won in 1987 and 1988 and where he clocked a personal best 15K time of 42:36.

Then he plans to head west to run his first marathon of the year, in either Los Angeles or Long Beach.

While Baretto is hoping to put last year's Bermuda experience to good use, American Ann Marie Letko will be tackling the 10K course for the first time.

The 23-year-old, ranked third in the US over 10,000 metres in 1991, is likely to be the class act in the women's field, along with Joan Benoit Samuelson, the former Olympic gold medallist.

Letko, who has just completed her English degree at Rutgers University, plans to use the Bermuda race as part of her build up to February's American trials in Oregon for the World Cross Country Championships. Ironically, she placed just one second behind the current world cross country champion, compatriot Lyn Jennings, in the Barbados 10K on December 5. That race was something of a vacation for both runners following the US cross country championships the week before where Jennings won again with Letko placing 11th.

In hot and humid Barbados, Jennings outkicked Letko over the final 150 metres to win in 33:12 with Letko clocked at 33:13. "I was shocked that I was able to hang with her,'' admits Letko, who lives in Milford, New Jersey. "We went through the first 5K in 15:58 and then really slowed it down. After that it was a case of sitting and waiting to see who made the first move. With about 150 to go, we started to sprint but she's the best distance kicker there is.'' Letko has opted to run Bermuda instead of taking up an invite to race cross country in England. "I was talking to Hal Rothman of ESPN's Running and Racing programme (which will also be filming the Bermuda race) and he was saying that Bermuda wasn't that far away, less than two hours flight. I figured it would be great because instead of missing two weeks of training by travelling to England, I could stay at home with my coach but still get in a couple of solid workouts in Bermuda.'' If conditions are right, Letko could become only the third woman to break 33 minutes in Bermuda -Norway's Grete Waitz (six times) and Scotland's Yvonne Murray (1986) are the only others.

Letko's personal best of 32:25 was set in good company when she placed 10 seconds behind Olga Markova, the devastating Russian road runner, at Asbury Park, New Jersey.

But her main focus is on the track. "My definite goal in 1993 is to run a sub-32 for the 10,000 metres. I should have done it in 1991 but I just didn't have the proper conditions. After that, I want to make the World Track and Field Championships again. If I stay injury free, I should have a good shot.'' At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, after running a personal best 32:26 in the heats, she dropped out of the finals with a shoulder injury - "I think I laid the wrong way on a bed or something,'' she laughs - while a foot injury in the spring of last year hindered her Olympic hopes and she could only place sixth in the US Trials in New Orleans.

"Time was just against me. I lost a few months training and I just had nothing going into the trials.'' It was a bitter disappointment after 1991 had promised so much. She had won the 10,000 metres gold medal at the World University Games in Sheffield, England and won the prestigious Boston Milk Run. Now she's aiming to make up for lost time, starting in Bermuda. "I don't know too much about the course,'' she admits, "but I hear it's hilly. I like hills!'' Joan Benoit Samuelson will be returning to the Island for the first time since 1979. Then an unknown athlete outside running circles, she became the first women's winner of the Bermuda 10K and the following day made her competitive debut at the marathon distance that was to make her famous. That year she placed second woman and 34th overall in 2:50.54 but went on to win Boston that year and again in 1983, setting a then world record 2:22.43. The following year she became the winner of the first Olympic marathon for women, in Los Angeles.

Since then she has taken time out to have two children but has returned successfully to competition. She ran a sub-2:30 Boston in 1991 just 14 months after her second child and just failed to make the qualifying standard for the 1992 US Olympic trials at 10,000 metres but in November, in her first marathon since the 1991 New York race, she won in Columbus, Ohio, in a time of 2:32.18.

The Bank of Butterfield Mile may be a lot shorter than the 10K but that doesn't make it any easier -especially if you're firing on all cylinders trying to break the four-minute barrier. So far the $10,000 bonus on offer for the first man to do so in the showpiece floodlit event has remained safely in the bank despite the efforts of world recordholder Steve Cram of England and American Joe Falcon to overcome the inevitable headwinds and tight turns at either end of the Front Street course.

Falcon, who set a course record of four minutes and 4.16 seconds last year, is set to defend his title this year but can expect a stiff challenge from a much-improved Michal Bartoszak this time round. Polish recordholder Bartoszak, who not only placed second in last year's Front Street event but also finished third in the ADT Bermuda 10K the following day, has notched up a string of impressive results since last January.

During the summer the 22-year-old set personal bests of 7:50.55 for 3,000 metres (June, Milan), 13:29.60 for 5,000 metres (June, Victoria, B.C.), 1:47.92 for the 800 metres (July, Poznan, Poland) and in October won the Cherry Street Mile in Tulsa in a blistering 3:47.26, one of the fastest American road miles on record and a time that easily beat his previous Polish road mile record of 3:56.8. Bartoszak also owns the Polish record at 2,000 metres and has a 1500 metres best of 3:38.21, set in New Delhi in September, 1991.

Another name to watch will be 25-year-old American miler Greg Whitely , who was fourth in last year's 1500 metres at the US Olympic Trials in 3:37.74. He boasts a 3:56.01 best for the mile and his 1992 honours included placing second in both the Miami Mile and Sunkist Mile, California and winning the Bahamas 5K in 13:44.

Englishman Paul Freary, another possible Mile contender, has an impeccable running pedigree - his father Michael broke David Bedford's British 10,000 metres record back in the 1970s. In November, the 24-year-old followed in his father's footsteps by winning the East Lancashire cross-country title his father had won in 1971. Freary is also the Lancashire 1500 metres champion and the current national Civil Service champion at cross country, 800 and 1500 metres, and has represented England at cross country against the Home Countries and on the track against Poland and Czechoslovakia in Prague. He is currently ranked in the top 25 in England over 1500 and the mile, boasting personal bests of 3:42.5 and 4:00.1 respectively.

In recent years, runners from what used to be the Soviet Union have made the running in the ADT Bermuda Marathon. Red Army officer Vladimir Kotov ran the third fastest Bermuda Marathon ever (2:17.00) to win in 1990 and last year Russian Sergei Krestyaninov took the honours with Olympian Raymond Kashapov third, while Valentina Shatieka of Kazakhstan won the women's race. This year Krestyaninov returns to defend his title, and perhaps become the first winner on the new loop course which finishes for the first time on Front Street, while Fira Sultanova, USSR marathon champion in 1991 in a time of 2:34.16, will make her Bermuda debut in the women;s event.

Among those challenging Krestyaninov in the men's race will be American Gary Garasz from Volant, Pennsylvania, who will be making his Bermuda debut. The 36-year-old is a two-time Olympic triallist and placed eighth in the US national championships in Columbus, Ohio in 1991 in a personal best 2:15.24.

FRONT RUNNER: Marcos Baretto makes his decisicve break at five miles on the way to victory in last year's 10k.

RG MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1993