Middle distance runner Tamika Williams has set her sights on breaking the two-minute barrier following another record breaking run at the weekend.

The 800 metre runner was competing for the Nike Farm Team at the Mt. SAC Relays held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California when she clocked 2:04.43.

Williams, who already held the national record, ran 2:05.25 outdoors last year and 2:05.08 indoors in February.

In the weekend race she placed fourth in a top class field. The race was won by Marion Burnett, who competed at last year's Commonwealth Games, in a time of 2:03.17.

“It was a very close race and most of it is a daze,” said Williams from her west coast base. “There was a fight for positions in front of me but I just sat back until the last 150 metres. My coach, Frank Gagliano, wanted me to be closer to the front with Marion and my team-mate Chantee Earl (eventual fourth) but most of the girls died at the end and I passed them in the last 50 metres.”

Despite her finish, Gagliano still had some advice for his athlete.

“He said I wasn't tough enough at the start,” she said. “Gags thinks that I still could have finished the way I did even if I went with the field.”

Williams is delighted at the way her season is progressing and promised there was more to come.

“I'm feeling very pleased with myself. I'm taking the steps and I'm getting closer and closer to my goals for the season, the main one of which is to qualify for the World Championships,” she said. “I learn from each race and then go back to practice and apply what I have learned.”

To qualify for the Worlds Williams will have to match the ‘B' standard of 2:01.30 but she thinks she can go even faster.

“I don't think it is beyond me, I have a lot left after running a 2:04,” she said. “Every time I race I take off a second or two, plus I haven't run a gutsy race yet.

“I don't know if I'm pacing myself, I just think that I've been trying to run smart races and I haven't dug deep enough yet.”

Williams is scheduled to run at Berkeley this weekend - a lower key event where she is expected to compete in the 400 metres and then she is lining up an appearance at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University on May 2.

Meanwhile, fellow Bermudian and Nike Farm Team runner, Ashley Couper, also competed at Mt. SACs at the weekend.

Couper ran in the 1500 metres and finished seventh in a time of 4:20.53. It is believed she may have qualified for the Pan-Am Games in that event as a result.