International Race Weekend officials have received a record number of enquiries from elite overseas athletes wishing to take part in next weekend's three-day festival.

But, says race director Philip Guishard, those enquiries won't necessarily translate into a better quality field as funding will again be the deciding factor.

"We've had the most enquiries we've ever had,'' Guishard revealed yesterday.

"We normally get somewhere in the 70 to 80 range but this year it has gone over 100, from a number of countries. But that is not necessarily translated into who we will bring because at the end of the day we are looking for quality.

"A lot of of people will want to come but the conditions under which they want to come and the level of performance they are able to offer does not necessarily fit into our plans.'' With the top athletes having their expenses -- airline tickets and accommodation -- taken care of by the organisers through sponsorship, race officials have to carefully determine those who fall into `invited athlete' status.

"We've had women at the 2:55 and three hour mark (for the marathon) who want to be invited athletes,'' said Guishard.

"We say `you can come and run in our event but we can't give you invited athlete status'. We keep a binder of all the enquiries and this year it has just gone overboard.'' Officials will release a final Race Weekend update at a press conference tomorrow, but Guishard has already confirmed that defending marathon champions, Nikolic Srba of Yugoslavia and Ukrainian Yelena Plastinina, will be returning.

Plastinina pocketed the most money ever by a Race Weekend participant when she took home $13,000 for the win and her record-breaking time of 2:40.50.

Guishard declined to comment on the status of last year's 10K winner Charles Mulinga of Zambia who was later involved in an altercation at a local nightclub and spent several days in King Edward VII Hospital.

But he did confirm that Mulinga had expressed interest in returning to defend his title.

"It's a reasonable field given what we are able to work with,'' said Guishard.

"We have had a record number of enquiries but we really don't have the depth I would like to see.

"The exception to all of that is in the marathon field. Whilst it's not of top international calibre, if you look at the records, they are there to be taken and there is a possibility that both can go.'' Added Guishard: "We set a deadline at November 30 but we also do take enquiries right up to the last minute. We set November 30 with the view to starting at that point to examine what we have in terms of quality.

"We look at the distance they are going to come from, for example. We are not going to bring a 10K runner from South Africa unless they are really top class.

"Even then we will try to arrange for their travel in relation to another event on this side of the world, so that we don't end up paying $1,500 for a runner to run a 10K. If the same runner was actually a quality marathon runner then we would probably pay the money.

"When we invite the athletes, our standard invitation provides for them to be ticketed to come here and we provide them with a host family for accommodation and we provide a daily allowance to cover them for lunch and dinner. A select few of them also have additional perks.'' The size of the Race Weekend budget doesn't allow for appearance money to be paid, with officials already having to rely heavily on the corporate sector for sponsorship. Guishard noted a paid trip to Bermuda for a challenging race was often enough to entice competitors.

"To get named athletes here you are talking about a massive budget,'' he stressed.

"The whole thing is driven by sponsorship. The biggest problem that Bermuda and Bermudians suffer from is the fact that whilst we like to see ourselves as part of the big world, in terms of corporate Bermuda, what they pay for in an event like this is exposure. There is only a certain value you can place on exposure in a tiny market like Bermuda.'' Guishard meanwhile confirmed two other developments, one that plans to have ESPN televise the event had again fallen through.

"They did not come last year and this, too, is a question of money,'' Guishard disclosed.

"The bottom line is the Department of Tourism did not feel it was worth the money. A lot of people who have been exposed to this event have been exposed to it through watching Running and Racing on ESPN.'' The Race Weekend Director also confirmed that Police Field would be used as the finish line for Saturday's 10K because of delayed repair work to the track at the National Stadium.

"Police have given verbal approval for use of Police Field,'' he said.

The course measurer will be arriving this Friday and the new course will be measured on Saturday.

COMING IN FROM THE COLD -- Yelena Plastinina will be returning from the Ukraine to defend her women's marathon title, having last year set a new record of 2:40.50.