Weekend to give himself a rest.

The news that the six-time Marathon Derby champion will be absent from next week's line-up comes as a blow to hopes of Bermudian success in the 10K and the half-marathon in particular.

Smith has come off the back of an exhausting year in 2000 which included a vain bid to meet the tough qualifying standards for the Olympic marathon.

"After last year when I put a lot of miles in, I could just use a break,'' said Smith yesterday.

"I've done Race Weekend so many times and I've been running for about 30 years. I don't want to burn out my desire to run.

"I just want to start my training in January and follow my normal regime.'' Last year, Smith shook off a bout of flu in the week before Race Weekend to lead home the locals in the half-marathon, finishing a creditable third overall in 1:09:16. And he also managed an eighth-place finish in the 10K, in which he was the second local to finish after sixth-placed Terrance Armstrong.

Smith said he doubted whether he would miss the buzz of Race Weekend competition, even if he was there to see the starting gun fire in Saturday's 10K.

"I watched (yesterday's) Princess race and thought: `Hey this is fun','' said Smith.

"I really enjoyed it and I didn't feel like I wanted to be running. I'm on holiday right now.

"When you go away from work for a week or two, you don't wish you were back at work.'' But Smith had a warning for the rivals he has been showing a clean pair of heels in recent years.

"I'll be back,'' he said. "There's no chance of me giving up yet, while I'm still winning races. I'd rather be beaten off the scene by someone.'' Smith won a record-equalling sixth Marathon Derby last year too, but his intensive effort to run under two hours, 20 minutes in the marathon was the focus of most of his efforts.

He spent seven weeks training at altitude in New Mexico with the help of sponsorship from TeleBermuda and he ran marathons in the US.

He managed to set a personal best time for the 26.2-mile distance but still fell well short of the qualifying time for Sydney.