setting his sights on achieving international glory in his homeland.

The annual Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Cross Country Championships are to be staged on the Island next year, and Donawa -- the current national champion -- wants to show the region just what the homegrown talent is capable of.

Clearly excited after his 15th place finish at the weekend's Canadian National Cross Country Championships in Toronto, Donawa believes it could be the start of great things to come.

His time of 38:38 was just a minute behind the winner and his finishing place was all the better, not just because of the standard of entrants, but because it was held in unfamiliar weather conditions.

More used to running in temperatures in the 70s, he had to contend with a Celsius reading of just three degrees or 38 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Going into it I was a little apprehensive about the conditions, not having run in Toronto in a cross country event,'' he said.

"Obviously I had first hand information about the weather, that was one of my concerns but it was not going to deter me from what I was trying to accomplish.'' Saying he was very pleased with his finish, Donawa said: "It was a good competition with very good runners. Basically I knew in order to perform at my best I was going to have to really run hard.

"It was tough but it was definitely something I needed at this stage in my career as well as my season.'' Asked if he thought there was much of a gulf between himself and those that finished ahead of him, he said: "I think that with a higher level of fitness and experiencing that standard of competition on a more consistent basis will help to propel me to that level.'' To achieve his goals Donawa knows he will have to be boarding planes with a greater degree of regularity.

"The only drawback about being here (in Bermuda) is you don't have that depth of competition. You have one or two quality runners,'' he said.

"You can have a bad day and be two minutes behind somebody and still finish second.

"I ran 38:38 in this race and between 38 minutes and 38:38 there were 10 spots. That's 10 spots over a space of 30 seconds -- that's a quality field when it happens like that.'' But finding time to run abroad will not be easy.

"Obviously I am a fireman, I have a career and I am married, those are obviously things that I am going to have to try to work around but I am going to see,'' Donawa said.

"Right now I'm at the point where I'm excited about what's happening. And I think with some good fortune things can happen but, like I said, I am going to have to work around these schedules here.'' His immediate sights are set on the regional championships.

"A year from now are the CAC cross country championships, which are going to be held here. Right now that's my long term goal -- that's one of the most important things for me because I really want to be able to perform at a very high level here, representing Bermuda,'' he said.

"It's what happens between now and then which will determine how well I do.

Obviously I am not going to be able to run at that level for the whole year.'' As a build-up to the championships Donawa is aiming to link up with some old school pals in the USA.

"I've made contact with some of my former team-mates at Auburn University in Alabama. One of them is now doing some coaching at the university and so what I am going to do in the next week or two is get in contact with him again and find out their schedule and the meets that they will be travelling to,'' he said.

At this moment, though, he is just happy to bask in the glory of his most recent run -- for a couple of days at least.

"This has capped off the cross country season for me. And now I'm going to regroup and start to get ready for the next season. My training will start in the next couple of days and that will take me through to the Spring.''