experience and potential, according to the winner of the last two races.

Karen Adams, triumphant in 1996 and 1997, will miss out on the chance to go for a third successive victory because of a hip flexor injury.

But she is backing masters runner Jane Christie and Lynn Patchett, back on the Island after five years' studying in England, to fight it out in Monday's event.

"Lynn has the potential, she trains so hard and she deserves it so much,'' says Adams, who will spend the race commentating from a radio broadcast car.

"But Jane has been running extremely well this year, she's climbing that ladder again.

"She's got the experience having run it so many times and she runs sensibly.'' It may be that Christie's experience will be the telling factor.

Adams adds: "If you've won it before it takes the pressure off. Lynn hasn't and if you have there's certainly a sense of being able to ride with it and enjoy it a little more.

"You know it's possible to win. Until then it's possible to psyche yourself out of it.'' Patchett, who has competed three times in the race before, but not since 1993, agrees that Adams' absence increases her own chances of winning the event.

But she expects stiff competition from not only Christie but Anna Eatherley and, perhaps, Maria Conroy-Haydon, who is not yet certain to run.

"They have all got a lot of experience of running the course and that gives them an advantage but I have had a particularly hard training schedule and I definitely want to win. I'd be lying if I said I didn't,'' she says.

And the 13.3-mile course is one she's at home with, having run half marathons regularly in England.

"It's my distance, I'm familiar with it and comfortable running it,'' she adds.

Christie and Patchett have already been in direct competition several times this year.

Most recently Christie saw off the challenge of Patchett, the early race leader, in the Maple Leaf 10K, recording her best time for that distance in over two years.

But Patchett won the Butterfield and Vallis/Gatorade 5K over Christie in February -- Adams, Eatherley and Conroy-Haydon were all non-starters -- and, perhaps more significantly, was almost a minute ahead of her rival in the half marathon at International Race Weekend the previous month.

And in March she clinched the Evian 10-miler, crossing the line four and half minutes in front of Christie.

Adams, meanwhile, bemoans the loss of her opportunity to go for a hat-trick but says she has written this season off as she tries to get the rest necessary to solve a problem that has recurred since her hurdling days.

"When I think of going for three in a row I will be a little sad not to run,''she admits. "Winning my first was wonderful, the second was great, so I will be sad to give up my crown.

"But more than anything I'll miss the atmosphere. The crowd can be really amazing.''