Dage Minors said he will not be competing in the Bermuda Marathon Weekend, even though his name has been included in the elite field of runners released by the Bermuda National Athletics Association (BNAA).

The 20-year-old, who last ran the KPMG Bermuda Invitational Mile on Front Street in 2013, is back home for the Christmas holidays but will leave to return to Franklyn Pearce University in New Hampshire next Tuesday.

The middle-distance runner was listed for the mile race next Friday and the 10K the following day, but said a slight injury had ruled him out of competing, something which he had relayed to the BNAA via e-mail in November.

“I don’t know why my name is still on the list because on November 16 they sent me an e-mail saying ‘overseas athletes that would like to run have to express their intention by November 27’ and that on December 16 they would let you know if you are running,” Minors said.

“On November 26 during the Thanksgiving break I e-mailed them and said I had a slight setback in training and that my coach had decided I shouldn’t run it.

“I thanked them and told them I looked forward to running it in the future but would not be able to do it this year.

“I never heard back from them and just assumed they read it, but yesterday I got a call saying I was on the list.

“I would do the race but going forward it’s not the best thing for me. I leave next Tuesday, so I’m not going to be here. Two or three months ago I wanted to run it.”

Minors claimed back-to-back high school victories in 2012 and 2013, returning home from St Johnsbury Academy in Maine to retain his title with a time of 4min 33sec, just short of the record of 4:27.3.

No other Bermudians are registered for the Invitational Mile which will involve some top overseas competitors battling for the top spot in both the men’s and women’s categories.

Kenia Sinclair, of Jamaica, set the mile record in 2010 and will be back for the first time since 2011 to compete against Heather Kampf, of the United States, who has won the race for last three years. Both Sinclair and Kampf are three-times winners, with Kampf claiming the mile, 10K and half-marathon last year.

Sinclair won the mile in 2009, 2010 and 2011 before Kampf’s winning run, although Sinclair’s record of 4:33.61 in 2011 remains intact.

The men’s elite-mile field includes defending champion Dave Bishop of Scotland, Zambia’s Jordan Chipangama, Wales’ Adam Bitchell and Drew Soucy of the United States. Bishop and Bitchell are both coached by Welshman James Thie who won the mile in 2003 and 2004.

All four competitors will also compete in the 10K when Chipangama, the winner in 2014, bids for a second title. Chipangama, who set a new record in the half-marathon with his time of 1:04.21 in 2014, will also run in the third and final race of the Bermuda Marathon Week- end.

Chipangama was a late withdrawal from last year’s half-marathon because of illness, having won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.

The top women milers will also compete in the 10K with Jennifer Hall of the US, England’s Chloe Anderson, Jamie Cheever of the US, and England’s Suzie Boast also doing both races.

n More than 200 runners have signed up for the first Gosling’s to Fairmont race on Sunday, the final road race before the Bermuda Marathon Weekend.

The race has replaced the Fairmont to Fairmont race, which this year has a new sponsor. It starts from Gosling headquarters on Dundonald Street before joining the old race route on Front Street and finishing at the Fairmont Southampton Beach Club via Harbour Road.

Bryan Huberty of Miami and local runner Rose-Anna Hoey were last year’s winners of the Fairmont to Fairmont race.

The winners of the men’s race will be awarded the Peter Lever Cup, in honour of the former runner and race official who died last year, while the women’s winner will take home the Jim and Debbie Butterfield Cup.