participating in Monday's Marathon Derby, defending champion Kavin Smith is finding it hard to convince others.

Yesterday, on registration deadline day, rumours were flying that the defending champion had signed up. But when contacted yesterday by The Royal Gazette , Smith insisted his position had not changed.

"The funny thing about May 24 is that every year people think I'm misleading people but I'm telling the truth,'' said Smith. "I'm definitely not running.

"I haven't run in two or three months and I had no intention of running this year.'' Smith recently pointed to the fact that he was busy renovating his home as the reason for his decision to skip the popular race. He won the last three years and set a course record in 1997 with a time of 1:09.49.

Since Smith first made known his intention to skip the race, the pundits have been tipping Tracy Wright, second last year, and Jay Donawa as the favourites.

Wright is Smith's tip for a second title. "Based on the fact that Jay would say that he is concentrating on track and looking at the fact that Tracy has been training on track over the shorter distances, his background and with this new speed from looking at his times, I would put my money on Tracy,'' said Smith.

KAVIN SMITH