With the traditional late rush still expected, entries are already up on last year for International Race Weekend which will see four major road races from this Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon.

Sunday’s ‘double-header’ — the International Marathon and International Half-Marathon — will feature considerably more runners than a year ago, according to figures released by the organising committee yesterday.

And Saturday’s International 10K is expected to see roughly the same amount of competitors as in 2001.

Already more than 1,000 entries have been confirmed for the weekend, which will also include a charity 10K walk on Saturday.

As of January 11, entries for the Half-Marathon, which will this year offer prize-money for the first time, stood at 357, compared to last year’s total of 335.

A total of 417 had signed up for the Marathon, compared to last year’s starting field of 373.

History has shown that entries for both of these races swell during the final days leading up to the weekend and organisers were expecting much of the same this week.

The International 10K, which during its hey-day in the early and mid 1980s saw more than 800 competitors, including many of the world’s top road runners, had received 248 entries as of January 11 compared to last year’s field of 282.

But again late registration was expected to carry that figure close to 300 as several runners, both local and visiting, opted to compete in more than one event.

Friday night’s Front Street Mile races, which kick off the annual road racing festival, will feature only those runners who qualified during trials late last year and the invited elite runners, many of whom will also run in the following day’s 10K.

Besides the top athletes from overseas, a number of Americans will be making their annual January pilgrimage to the Island.

Fifty-five year-old Ross Kolhonen of Salem, Massachusetts — he’ll be wearing the number K25 — will be racing in his 25th consecutive Bermuda 10K.

And another regular, Dudley Healy (no. K87) of Chatham, New Jersey, will be tackling the 10K course at the age of 87.

Sixty-seven year-old Don Lang (no. M292) of Glendale, California, will be running in his 292nd marathon (26.2 miles) or longer distance event since he began running marathons at the age of 58.

Oldest female in the marathon will be 74-year-old Angela Saldana (no. M74), of Cocoa Beach, Florida, while Bermuda’s own veteran, 75-year-old Ludwig Cann (K75 and M75), is again attempting both Saturday’s 10K and Sunday’s Marathon.

Hundreds of entries have again been received from the Leukaemia-Lymphoma Society of America as they attempt to raise funds for that charity.

Among them will be the society’s coach/trainer, 44-year-old Guy Gordon, of Newton, New Jersey, who boasts a best marathon time of 2:33.30.