Sean Trott will stage a one-man race against the clock tomorrow morning (Saturday) when he competes in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, albeit virtually.

Trott will set off on the certified Bermuda Triangle Challenge Half Marathon route from Hamilton Princess at 7.30am , before heading to the Barrs Park finish line.

“The BNAA are pleased to advise that Sean Trott will be participating in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, but running it virtually,“ explained Donna Raynor, president of the Bermuda National Athletics Association.

“This course was chosen as it is already a certified and measured course. Sean had qualified for the event and was approved and ready to compete in the event in March before we were hit with the pandemic.

“This event was rescheduled to later in the year, October, but Sean made the decision to not travel to Gydnia, Poland during this time to compete.

“We are very excited about this opportunity for Sean and the results will be forwarded to World Athletics.”

The event will take place in Poland this weekend , but because of the pandemic, World Athletics offered participants the option to run the race virtually if they had travel restrictions or did not want to compete with other runners due to safety concern

“It’s much harder having a family, going over and then coming back and having to quarantine made it really complicated,. Trott said.

Trott has invited a few other runners to join him on Saturday, with Rose-Anna Hoey accepting the invitation along with Alex Winfield and Africa-born local runner Moses Musandaedza.

“I’m hoping to go close to 1hour, 15 minutes,” Trott revealed. “Dage Minors, the track athlete, has agreed to pace me through some of the earlier miles.

“The last Triangle Challenge I did I did around 1:17 on the course so I definitely think I’m prepared to go faster at this point. It’s definitely been a while since I have raced a half, the last one was last November.

“I’ve got a few of the local road runners coming out to run, five or six right now, so I’ll have some company. It will definitely be different being that it is going to count as a virtual result for the World Half [Marathon].

“It’s nice to have other people joining in to make it feel like a race.”

A race of this type is something new for Trott but he is taking on the challenge and has been training.

“When Donna Raynor brought up the prospect of running like this back in July, early August, I was already maintaining my fitness, doing a decent amount of miles. I then upped my training in anticipation of it, doing more serious sessions,” Trott explained.

“I definitely feel ready for a good time. October is better than August or September would have been and we are aiming for a 7.30am start to avoid some of the heat as well.

“I’m not sure of everyone who is going to run as they are still registering via the event page, but I will know for sure on Friday. I’ve been doing quite a few runs with Moses who has been a great training partner the last few months.”