Sean Trott will be looking to clear the final hurdle and land a maiden Bermuda Day Half Marathon title this year.

The 29-year-old has come up just short on two previous occasions, having finished runner-up to Chris Estwanik in 2012 and defending champion Lamont Marshall last year.

He also came third in 2011 when he achieved his personal best time of 1hr 12.51 min.

“I’m definitely looking to go one better,” Trott said. “That will always be the goal going in, so I will give it the best shot I can on the day.”

Many predict this year will be another two-horse race between firm favourite Marshall and Trott.

Trott, however, begs to differ.

“Tyler Butterfield and Chris Estwanik will not be in it this year, so it’s pretty much down to Lamont and he is the strong favourite,” he said. “Then you have some others that have been coming up over the last few years like Dennis Mbelenzi, who has done some good stuff recently and is looking pretty strong going in.

“Chayce Smith is doing the race this year. I haven’t seen any race results from him, but I know if he’s doing it then he’s obviously put in the work. I would expect to see him up there.

“Another one who surprised me in the Bermuda Marathon Weekend was Sammy DeGraff, the former footballer. He came out and ran a fairly strong race in January, so I know he has been putting in the work as well.

“Any of those guys can be a surprise on the day, so I try not to limit it to [Marshall] because you never know who may spring a surprise attack. I definitely look to make it an interesting race.”

Trott’s preparations for the 13.1-mile race have been no different than in previous years.

“I have pretty much stuck with what works, so I’ve just done the same steady build-up from January that I always do,” he said. “I’ve just increased the mileage consistently and doing the same type of workouts that I’ve done before in previous years.

“I feel good and definitely don’t think I can do any better. Everything has gone well and I’m just excited really.”

One thing Trott will have to change, though, is his strategy, with this year’s race starting from St George’s, where his father Randy Trott was born and raised.

“The course is different so it’s definitely one you have to attack differently,” he said.

“The course in St George’s starts a lot flatter than in Somerset.

“You have to be more disciplined in your approach from the beginning and not take it out too hard because it’s going to be really easy to do that with the flat course starting out.

“Somerset has more hills in the beginning and then kind of flattens out towards the end, so you have to hold and pull the reins back early on and then letting it all go at the end.”