Hurricane Fabian came close wiping out International Race Weekend ? even though the popular road running event doesn?t take place until January next year.

But both the International Half-Marathon and the International Marathon will go ahead as schedule following news this week that part of the course on the South Shore near John Smith?s Bay ? where the road was all but washed away ? will be repaired in time for the big event.

The news was music to the ears of Bermuda Track and Field Association president Judith Simmons, who admitted this week she had feared the worst.

Those fears, however, were allayed when the BTFA received a letter from Government?s Works and Engineering Department confirming that the road would be accessible and available to accommodate the runners.

If the surface of what was left of the main road had not been restored in time, both the marathon and half-marathon may have been cancelled.

?Naturally, this letter was good new for us,? said Simmons. ?To be honest it was sensational news because we didn?t know whether we would be able to have those two events. But now we know that we will be definitely going ahead with our usual plans.?

Simmons revealed that had repairs not been able to be carried out in time, the difficulty of finding and accurately measuring another marathon and half-marathon route might have been too much to contemplate.

And the BTFA would have had to consider scrapping both races.

?It would be very difficult to get another 26 miles,? said Simmons.

?Setting a new course would involve so much, you would have to look at the main artery road and so many other things.

?The whole community has become accustomed to us using the regular route for International Race Weekend, it?s been the same for a number of years with only slight changes to the the start and finish lines.

?Such a change would force you to sit down and think, you would have to have approval from the Police to make sure that traffic and emergency vehicles, in particular, could get through.

?The administrative and other planning required would be tremendous, you would not have been able to have it done in a short period of time.?

Meanwhile, Simmons was unable to say whether any of the Race Weekend champions from last year would be returning as no official applications had yet been received.

But she said many of the elite runners had indicated, via e-mail and other correspondence, that they intended to come back.

?Yes, it looks promising?, she added. ?We have had quite a number of elite athletes who have sent in their information for us to consider.

?We have not got anything from the defending champions yet, but I spoke to Tegla Laroupe and she said that she would love to come back and I understand that the same applies to elite runners like Leonard Mucheru, James Thie and Christian Hesch.?