Former world marathon champion Douglas Wakiihuri believes that quality runners from Bermuda might one day train with their Kenyan counterparts and benefit from the environment and workouts that have produced world-beating endurance runners.

Wakiihuri is currently on the Island to watch, and possibly take part in, the Bermuda International Race Weekend.

It was hoped he would be accompanying two elite runners from Kenya who were lined up to take part in the weekend's events, but the runners were not granted the necessary transit visas to reach Bermuda.

Despite that setback, Wakiihuri is hoping he can nurture freshly made contacts here to create a network between the two countries and see where it leads. One idea he envisages is runners from Kenya benefiting from being able to race in Bermuda and top runners from the Island training in Kenya.

The 1988 Olympic marathon silver medallist is making his first visit to Bermuda following a chance meeting with leading Island runner Victoria Fiddick at last year's Toronto Marathon. This led to a sponsored link-up through the Mid Atlantic Athletic Club (MAAC), with club president Chris Page saying he saw it as an opportunity for MAAC to informally affiliate with a group of Kenyans.

Wakiihuri is one of Kenya's greatest distance runners. He was the country's first marathon world champion when he took gold in Rome in 1987 and was Kenya's first Olympic marathon medallist taking silver in the 1988 Seoul Games.

As a youngster he competed at cross country and the 1,500m. Although he qualified for the world junior cross country championships in the early 1980s, he instead took up an opportunity to train in Japan with the highly respected marathon coach Kiyoshi Nakamura, who had guided top marathoner Toshihiko Seko.

His decision to move up in distance to compete at the marathon was taken for pragmatic reasons.

"We looked at all the different race distances and realised I could not qualify for the Olympics in any of them (because of Kenya's in depth talent) except the marathon. At the marathon I had a chance to get to the Olympics. There was an empty seat," said Wakiihuri.

Having chosen to focus on the marathon he ran the Olympic qualifying standard of 2.13 at his third attempt.

In the lead-up to the 1987 Rome World Championships, Wakiihuri relocated to Sweden where he trained in the heat of the Scandinavian summer and clocked a 61.40 half marathon. Wakiihuri has a naturally heavier build than many Kenyan distance runners, which has some bearing on where and how he trains. He explained: "With a bigger frame your turn-over speed is slower and it is harder to propel yourself in the winter, when it also takes longer to warm-up the muscles."

Going into the World Championships as a 2.13 man against world greats who were sub-2.10 athletes meant Wakiihuri was overlooked by many of the other top runners. But that all changed after he claimed victory. He followed up with silver in the 1988 Olympics, in a race that saw him beat Dijbouti's Hussein Amhed Salah into third spot.

Salah vowed to reverse the roles in the 1989 London Marathon. In the final miles it became a race between Salah and Wakiihuri. The Kenyan had noticed his rival from Africa would look behind regularly to check on where he was. Wakiihuri counted how many times Salah looked around and then used that to his advantage at the crucial final run-in. Salah twice looked over his left shoulder, but when he went for his third look Wakiihuri sprinted past on his right. Catching Salah by surprise, Wakiihuri secured victory in his fastest time of 2.09.03.

He went on to win the New York Marathon in 1990 and the World Cup Marathon in 1995. His last marathon was in Honolulu in 1998.

Today, Wakiihuri does not race competitively, although he may take part in Saturday's International 10K for fun to meet people and spread encouragement.

He is also involved in music-making and has helped to establish the Sotokoto Safari Marathon, which starts inside the Nairobi National Park. Details of this unique event are available at www.sotokotomarathon.co.ke.

n Wakiihuri will be giving an informal talk, which is open to all, today at 6.30 p.m. at the St John's Ambulance building on Point Finger Road. The event has been arranged by MAAC.