a Mexican Hat Dance in a frantic bid to make sure that Marcos Barreto would be competing, beginning on Friday night.

Barreto -- one of four Mexicans pencilled in for this year's road running extravaganza -- may not compete in the Mile or 10K because of what appears to be a breakdown in communication.

The 10K winner of 1992 and 1993 was supposed to be one of the prized acquisitions for this year's organisers, especially since Barreto was unable to take part in 1994 because of an injury.

But the invitation Barreto received from Race Committee organisers on December 22 left open the impression that a round-trip airline ticket would not be provided for the 34-year-old runner.

"We received a fax, but there was no airplane ticket held for him,'' Barreto's wife Angeles said last night from the couple's home near Guadalajara, Mexico. "With the Mexico peso devalued it's impossible for him to pay the airline ticket.'' A question mark now literally hangs over Barreto's participation.

Last night, a shocked Guishard insisted that a ticket was waiting for the runner at Mexico City's airport.

"His ticket is, as I speak, at the airport, what's he talking about?'' Guishard asked. "Boy, this is messy, oh, dear. We sent him a fax, an invitation.'' A question mark which appeared in a sentence declaring that the race committee "would provide a return economy air ticket'' instead left Barreto and his wife believing that a free ticket would not be included in the deal.

Guishard acknowledged that the "question mark'' probably left Barreto, who speaks hardly any English at all, with the wrong impression.

"The question mark is only because I'm not sure where he's travelling from,'' said Guishard. The notation was inserted by Guishard so Barreto would know where to write in where he would be leaving from.

"He's not angry, but he is disappointed,'' Barreto's wife said.

Said Guishard: "Now that you've told me this I'll try to call him right away.'' Guishard attempted to telephone Barreto late last night to clear up the matter, leaving a message on his answering machine. He said that another call would be made this morning.

"One of the agents advised us that the courier service in Mexico is very unreliable and that we should not courier the tickets,'' said Guishard. "We had to spend an extra $200 for each of the Mexican tickets to ensure they were sent pre-paid. It was a very expensive proposition to make sure the Mexicans got here. So I hope that's not going to get messed up.'' Besides Barreto three other Mexicans have been invited to take part this weekend -- Maximo Castillo (10K), Benjamin Paredes (10K), and Moises Requena (marathon).

At a media conference last week Guishard was particularly excited about how the Mexicans and three Kenyans would add a different flavour to this year's events.

Barreto also believed the invitation was for the Mile only.

"Marcos wanted to run the mile and also the 10K,'' said the runner's wife.

"We sent one invitation to get them here,'' said Guishard. "He hasn't got two invitations, one for the Mile and one for the 10K. The intention with all the athletes who come for the Mile is once they arrive they sign up for all sorts of additional things.'' Even if the matter is cleared up it's not entirely certain that Barreto will now be able to compete. He suffered an injury to his right leg recently, but has continued to train during the past two weeks.

"He's doing fine, but last week he had a little pain in his leg,'' said Angeles Barreto.

Marcos Barreto