Flying Scotsman Peter Fleming is hoping history doesn't repeat itself and prevent him from running in next year's International Race Weekend.

The Briton gave notice of his intentions of taking part in the event by storming to victory in the Bermuda Track and Field Association's half-marathon on Sunday.

Fleming left the field in his wake, beating second-placed Kavin Smith by a massive eight minutes.

It was the first time he had run on the Island since causing a storm of controversy two decades ago.

In 1981 Fleming ran in the May 24 Marathon Derby, helping to dictate the pace until being forced out after five miles for being an "unofficial entrant''.

Fellow runners accused him of ruining their race strategy for the event which was eventually won by Ray Swan.

Reflecting on that ill-fated visit, Fleming, originally from the Govan district of Glasgow but now living in Colorado, said: "It was probably my own fault. I was advised by somebody that I would be able to run and I went and ran. I was running up against the local favourite and because I was running unofficially some people didn't really like that.

"They started giving me a hard time out on the course, shouting at me and they pulled me off the course.'' Fleming didn't let the incident get him down, going on to carve himself a niche in the sport.

"I think everybody thought that I was nobody. But since I ran that race I went on to run for the UK and I've run some pretty good marathons,'' he said.

"I went on to run pretty successfully for about 10 years but the competition in Scotland wasn't very good anymore so I decided to move to Boulder. "I have a really good friend there, Steve Jones, the former world record holder in the marathon. He helped me out and I ran pretty well for about another four or five years.'' Now Fleming is back and is hoping the Island's road runners will let bygones be bygones.

He is keen to mark his 40th birthday by competing in the January race weekend festival and is awaiting an invitation from the BTFA.

He said he had tentatively spoken to Judy Simmons, president of the association, prior to Sunday's race and would be putting a call in to her before he returned to the States in view of his performance.

"She just said she would have to look at my resume. This was before Sunday's race and I think once I give her a call she'll understand that I can actually put one foot in front of the other,'' said Fleming, who intends to run both the mile and the half-marathon.

He said he used last Sunday's race as a barometer to gauge how far the competition had moved on since he was last here.

He had hoped there would be more challengers for the number one spot, but as Jay Donawa had opted to run in Canada on the same weekend, he was really only with regular race favourite, Smith.

As it turned out even Smith couldn't live with the pace and the Scot pounded the streets on his own for much of the event.