American athlete Carl Kinney, surprise winner of the Fairmont-to-Fairmont road race four days ago when he led home seven-times champ Jay Donawa, lines up for the International 10K this Saturday.

He will figure in the leading pack of distance specialists expected to break the 30 minute-barrier despite the challenging course that loops out to Flatts and back.

The 25-year-old lives and trains at altitude in Boulder, Colorado, with famed US coach Brad Hudson. Asked who he believes might win the 10K he suggested a number of names, but modestly leaves himself out.

He feels his time will come, eventually, and has ambitions to run 29 minutes 20 seconds for 10K this season. Anything approaching that time would have secured victory in every International 10K since 2000.

However, this year there are a number of runners who have clocked times in the low 28 minutes, and even sub-28 such as his Colorado training buddy Clint Wells whose 10,000 metres best is 27:56.

Wells, along with Rod Koborsi (28:32), US 10,000 metres champ Jorge Torres (28:14) and Kenya?s Joseph Hgetich (28:13) figure in Kinney?s picks as potential winners.

But Kinney himself is the talk of Bermuda?s running community after his bold front-running in the 30th anniversary Fairmont-to-Fairmont race ended Island favourite Donawa?s record-breaking streak of wins.

At 9 a.m. last Sunday he was a total unknown in Bermuda, 37 minutes and seven seconds later as he crossed the finish line he was the centre of attention having set the course?s third fastest time.

He admits his altitude training gave him an edge. And he arrived in Bermuda aware of Donawa?s ambition for an eighth-straight win.

Just before he left Colorado, he read a story on-line about the Fairmont race and Donawa?s intention and noted the reigning champion?s recent 1:10 half-marathons in Philadelphia.

?I saw his half-marathon times and knew I could do something. I ran a 1:13 half-marathon at altitude the day after a 16-mile training run that had depleted me. I knew what I was capable of and that I was stronger than 1:10,? said Kinney.

?Donawa was focused on the half-marathon distance whereas I was focused on 10K and 5K so I had the speed. And reading the article got me motivated.?

Kinney had previously met Bermuda triathlete Dyrone Minors in Boulder. Minors invited him to come out early for the International Race Weekend, giving him the option of participating in the Fairmont race. Minors gave Kinney a tour of the 7.3 mile course.

?When we got to the Southampton hotel I was intimidated by the hill a little. But for the past two weeks I had been running tempo hills and long hills in Boulder because it was the only way to run and get some traction and grip because of the snow. I?d been doing a really steep hill, like the one at the hotel, running hard at altitude,? he said.

At the start line Kinney and Donawa exchanged a brief greeting and handshake. The American then took a psychological advantage, moving ahead of Donawa as soon as the race began. The first mile was in a swift 4:52.

?He stuck right with me. I knew we were pushing hard but I was happy with the mile spilt. I kept forcing it from there on and felt good.? His time panned out at an average of around 5:07 per mile.

What comes as a surprise is to learn about the relatively recent improvement in Kinney as an athlete that has elevated him from being an above average runner capable of a 17:30 5K to someone seeking a 14:10 by the end of the 2007 season.

The difference has been a change of lifestyle, his move to the rarified air of Boulder, his association with celebrated coach Hudson and his unshakeable inner belief in his own latent potential and what he needs to do to reach his athletic peak.

It started back in Delaware where Kinney lived and studied to become a teacher.

?I was at high school and one summer I watched a movie, possibly Karate Kid, and decided next morning I?d get up at 6 a.m. and run for two miles. It took me 40 minutes. But I remember sitting on the porch and saw the sun coming up and I had this feeling that I was starting on an adventure,? he explained.

From a 5K time of 21:30 he improved over three years to 17:30, a decent enough time but nothing that would trouble the US national rankings. Moving to Boston for his masters? degree his life was too busy and stressful to realistically expect improvement, even though he learned a great deal about training principles from Boston University track coach Bruce Lehame.

?I could ask him any question about training; why are we doing these intervals, what is this tempo doing for me, etc, and he could explain the concept in my language.?

Before leaving university, Kinney decided his next move would be to relocate to Boulder, a virtual running ?Mecca? since distance-running great Frank Shorter relocated there in his 1970s prime.

Training at altitude, where the air is much thinner, forces the body to work harder during exercise and generate more red blood cells to carry oxygen to the muscles. When an athlete returns to sea-level conditions their body is stronger and has the extra benefit of a super-charged red blood cell count to suck up more oxygen than rivals.

Kinney fell in love with Boulder when he first visited, going for a training run on the Mesa Trail.

?It is such a wonderful setting, being up there in the mountains and re-connecting with yourself, surrounded by the pastures, lakes and the pink clouds,? he said.

?You see the Kenyan national team, the Japanese national team, almost everyone training hard in the world is up there on Magnolia Road. I can?t image anyone who is anyone who has not been there.?

A chance meeting with coach Brad Hudson, whose training group features US national champions and Olympians, led to Kinney becoming an unofficial addition to Hudson?s elite core, benefiting from training advice that has now brought him to the verge of the US national scene.

His training includes the famous Magnolia Road run at Boulder, a Sunday long-run that starts at 8,000ft and reaches a turnaround point at seven miles at 9,000ft. It is ?brutally hard? but Kinney is committed enough to put himself through those sessions to realise his dream of being a headline-making runner. This year?s Fairmont-to-Fairmont result, he hopes, is just the start.

Certainly, Kinney could be one to watch when this Saturday?s 10K starts at 10 a.m. from the National Sports Centre.