Two Ethiopian athletes added at the 11th hour to this year's Bermuda International Race Weekend marathon elite guests list appear to be likely winners.

Both have impressive marathon times which, on paper, suggest they will outrun their rivals on Sunday morning.

If Habtamu Bekele and Abeda Tola put in a performance anywhere near their recent road racing achievements, they should have no trouble respectively lifting the men's and women's marathon trophies.

Bekele made it onto the world list of top ranking marathoners in 2003 when he ran a stunning personal best of 2 hours 10 minutes and 43 seconds in the Rome Marathon. The same year he was third in the Prague Marathon in 2.14.10, just two minutes behind Boston Marathon record holder and three-times winner Robert Cheruiyot.

And the African has shown little sign of slowing down in the past few years. In the 2004 Rome Marathon he was fourth in 2.12.04, and won Israel's Tiberias Marathon in both 2004 (2.15.39) and 2005. He finished runner-up in 2006 in 2.16.

At his peak Bekele clocked a 1.03 for the half-marathon. His biggest rivals this weekend will be five-times Bermuda Marathon winner El Afoui Boubker, along with three athletes from the former Soviet Union; Ukrainians Alex Golovnickiy and Edward Gapak, and Belarus runner Dimitry Sivou.

The women's marathon featured only three invited guests until Abeda Tola was confirmed this week.

Exactly a year ago the Ethiopian ran a competitive 2.35.59 to finish second in the Dubai Marathon.

She was sixth home in the Rotterdam Marathon in 2005, where she set her best of 2.29.54.

For Tola the opposition includes defending champion Venera Sarmosova of Russia, who ran a time of 2.39.22 just three months ago.

Sunday's marathon starts at the Flag Pole on Front Street at 8 a.m. and finishes at the same place.

• Bermuda's Otis Robinson is looking increasingly doubtful as a competitor in this year's Race Weekend. Robinson ran a 4.50 mile in last year's Fifth Avenue Mile in New York and is a qualifier for the local invitation men's race this Friday. However, he has been suffering from illness during the past few weeks and has already decided to pull out of Saturday's 10K.

He will decide on Friday evening whether he is strong enough to run the Front Street mile.