and altered some courses and start times for this year's event.

The marathon and half-marathon races, as well as the Front Street Mile will start from slightly different points, said race director Judith Simmons yesterday.

Organisers Bermuda Track and Field Association are members of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, and IAAF officials came to the Island recently to assist in measuring the distances of the altered courses.

Simmons said the changes would prove to be beneficial to the runners and organisers and were implemented after a number of suggestions for improvement were recommended by participants. Race Weekend gets underway on January 12 with the Front Street Mile and the alteration to that course came about because the Bank of Butterfield are no longer sponsors.

"The change to the mile is just a slight cosmetic one,'' said Simmons. What we have done is that we have moved the starting line closer to the exit of the Number Five Shed parking lot and the finish line will be in front of the Flag Pole, directly in line with Burnaby Street where the invited guests will be seated,'' said Simons.

"Since the bank are no longer sponsors and we wanted it in the centre where our invited guests will be because they will no longer be up on the bank's balcony. So what we have effectively done is move the start and the finish line 15 metres forward, so it's still the same course. Previously the start was close to Flannagan's.'' The 10K on the following day has not been affected but both the half-marathon and marathon on the Sunday have had times and routes altered.

In previous years the two events were started simultaneously at 9 a.m. at Barr's Bay on Pitt's Bay Road with an earlier start of 7 a.m. available for four-hours-plus marathoners.

However this year the new changes have all runners starting at 8 a.m. without any separate and earlier start for the slower runners. And the start and finish for both races has been shifted to Number One Shed.

Continued on page 21 Race changes Continued from page 19 "We've heard competitors complain about walking from Hamilton Princess to Number Six Shed and then having to walk back to Barr's Bay in order to start the race, and to accommodate them we have changed the start and the finish line so that we will have a one start and finish line for both races and that will be outside of Number One Shed in line with the beginning of the Calypso Building,'' pointed out Simmons.

"With these changes the runners will be able to bring their bags to Number One Shed, go just outside and start the race and when they finish go back there and collect their bags, so their headquarters will be Number One Shed.

"And in order to accommodate the half-marathoners when they get to Bermudiana Road, they will have to go up Bermudiana Road, make a u-turn prior to the junction on Gorham and Bermudiana Road and come back down on Bermudiana and on to Front Street.

"Because they do one lap they will finish outside of Number One Shed. But the marathoners will do that little loop twice and then come to the finish line at Number One Shed.'' She added: "We heard what runners were saying and it's our way of generating improvements, we looked at it from an administrative point of view and it's much easier for us.

"We had the starting line at Barr's Bay but the finish line for the half marathon was closer to Trimingham's than Calypso and the finish line for the marathon was down at Number Six Shed, almost outside of the bleachers.

"What happened was that if you had people who were very slow in finishing the half-marathon, we in fact had two finish lines going at the same time which made it difficult, so this way we will be more efficient and have one finish line.''