As His rivals have said repeatedly in the past, there's no reason why Kavin Smith can't be beaten in the annual Marathon Derby.

But for nine years, nobody's figured out just how.

He's become the most successful runner in the event's long history and in some ways it would be fitting if he completed a 'perfect ten' in next year's edition.

But with such an impressive record in a race that every serious local athlete desperately wants to win, what is perhaps most perplexing about Smith is the fact that he hasn't managed to translate his obvious talent into international glory.

Without doubt there is a huge gulf between the Heritage Day Race - open as it is to only local residents - and major races overseas.

However, ask anybody who's ever completed the agonising trek from Somerset to National Sports Centre (and there can have been few races more painful than last Monday's event run in suffocating humidity) and they'll all tell you it's the toughest race in which they've ever competed.

What separates Smith from everybody else is the consummate ease with which he glides along the route, barely changing stride as he climbs over one hill after the next.

Whether he runs from the front, as he has so often done in the past, or bides his time, as occurred on Monday, Smith demonstrates a fluid rhythm which gives the impression that he's always in control.

Unlike previous winners, he rarely appears exhausted, even out of breath.

It's as if he could turn around at the finish and run right back to where he started - much like it was rumoured former champion Calvin (Baldy) Hansey once did.

In all the years the race has been run - and it dates back to the early 1900s - there can have been no better champions.

He's won more times, and significantly more times in succession, than anyone before him and it's doubtful such a winning streak will be repeated in the lifetime of anyone reading this column.

Jay Donawa has suffered the disappointment of finishing bridesmaid for the past five years but he should console himself with the fact that had he been running in any other era he would likely have won at least a couple of times by now.

He's simply come up against an exceptional athlete, the likes of which Bermuda has rarely seen.

Hopefully Donawa's time will come - his perseverance alone deserves no less - but he may have to wait until his long-time rival finally steps aside.

Unlike other great Bermuda athletes, such as Games medal winners Clarance (Nicky) Saunders or Brian Wellman, Smith somehow hasn't managed to make a major impression beyond these shores.

But maybe it's still not too late.

Over the last year, and just prior to Monday's race, the 36-year-old insisted he hadn't trained particularly hard and no longer harboured the same desire to win as when he was younger.

We can take those comments with a pinch of salt.

All that tells us is that if he can win so convincingly on a reduced training schedule, then how much better he might be if he again took the sport 'seriously'.

While the Olympics or even the Pan-Am Games might be too tall an order, wouldn't a trip to this year's Island Games, where a gold medal certainly wouldn't be out of reach, be a fitting way to wind down an illustrious career that so far hasn't reaped the rewards Smith so richly deserves?