runners in Saturday's International 10K.

And he is not concerned about winning the race to be first local to finish, which, in the absence of Kavin Smith, is likely to be a battle between himself and Terrance Armstrong.

Donawa finished ninth overall in last year's 10K, but felt he didn't do himself justice with his time of 32:59 in appalling weather conditions.

"Last year I came off a really good run in the Princess race the week before and on the day of the 10K I was feeling a bit flat and the weather was terrible,'' said Donawa.

"I don't want to make excuses, but it was just a bad day. This time, I just want to run a solid, positive race.'' Armstrong, a local who also has elite status, finished sixth in last year's race in 31:49, just one-and-a-half minutes behind Kenyan winner Sammy Ng'eno.

But Donawa did not want to view the race as a showdown between Bermudians.

"If you get caught up in trying to be first local, then you can take away your chances of competing with the elite athletes. This is a great opportunity for local runners to gauge themselves against elite runners from overseas, the one race in Bermuda when you can do that.'' Donawa enjoyed an emphatic defence of his Princess to Princess race title last Sunday, cruising home to win the 7.2-mile contest by nearly three minutes, in 37:56.

Showing such good form so early in the year was a result of his cross country programme, which ended with Donawa winning the national championship with a rare victory over Smith.

"The cross country season runs through November and up to the first week in December, so I always use the training as a carry-over for Race Weekend and then after the International 10K, I regroup to get ready for the races in the Spring.

"My goal is mainly to be competitive, relatively speaking, because obviously there will be elite runners at a higher level.

"One thing about the 10K is that it's not a race with a lot of runners up front, so you can finish in the top 10 and still have a mediocre time. And I've done that, finished in the top 10, year after year, and been very disappointed in terms of my time.

"Right now, I just want to focus on the weekend and afterwards I'll set some goals for the rest of the year,'' added Donawa.

Tracy Wright, the man who finished second in Sunday's Princess race, will also be in action this weekend as one of the leading local lights in Sunday's half-marathon.

Wright, a two-time Marathon Derby winner (1990 and 1998) said he was far from his best at the moment and was around three weeks into his training programme for the Paris Marathon in April.

"I've signed up for the 10K and the half-marathon, but I'll probably just do the half, because I don't feel I've any speed yet,'' said Wright.

"I'm doing 14-mile runs in my training schedule, so I might do the half, mainly as training.

"I'm really concentrating on Paris. I want to do well there, better than I did the year before last. I want to do 2:30 or 2:35 this year if I can. That's my main target right now.

"I'm not too concerned about the time right now, it's just a matter of getting my mileage in. I haven't raced seriously for about a year now. I've just done the odd race and a bit of cross country, but it's mostly been training.

"I felt a little heavy (in the Princess race) but I'm slowly getting better.'' Wright's second place finish on Sunday came after he covered the course twice, running from the end to the start before taking part in the actual race.

Jay Donawa: eager to improve on last year's performance.