Florin Teleman is geared up to defend his title in the Bermuda Backyard Ultra at Southside in St David’s tomorrow.

Last year, Teleman, who finished second to Jason Williams in 2024, was declared the winner after Philip Woollins failed to complete the 21st lap of 4.167 miles in the required time of one hour.

“I was the 2025 champion, but we’ll see how it goes this year,” the 44-year-old told The Royal Gazette.

“My training was good, especially in the last four weeks. I’ve been running 100 miles per week and my body feels OK this week, I slowed down to be ready for the big day.”

Teleman has already qualified to represent Bermuda at the next Team World Championships, to be held in October. Unlike a single-venue race, this is a global event where national teams compete at the same time on their own home soil, with each runner’s completed 6.7km loops contributing to their country's total score.

Fifteen team members are required to compete.

Woollins expressed his desire to improve his effort from 12 months ago.

“I’d like to do better than how I did last year,” Woollins said.

“I don’t think you can plan too much to go long in this event. You can just put yourself in the position that if you’re feeling good you can keep stacking up the hours.

“The team event might be interesting though. I think my company [Somerset Re] was third last year, but could do better this year.”

Meanwhile, Williams has not set any specific targets for this year as he is not at his best in terms of fitness.

“I don’t have a specific number of yards that I’m looking to achieve this time,” the 2024 winner said.

“I am just coming off of a significant injury, so my goal is to stay on the course for as long as my body allows me without causing injury.

“I did take part in last year's event but used it as a training run, I did nine laps and then went to work on the ambulance. My goals last year were set to reach peak fitness for the races that I had later in the year.”

Top female runner Rose-Anna Hoey is looking forward to an event that is close to her heart.

“I’ve been working with my coach to try to get some speed back in my legs so the longest run I’ve done is 14 miles, however it was at a decent pace,” Hoey said.

“I couldn’t run for a month in November-December as I had joint issues, so didn’t have a chance to train consistently.

“I do love this event; I did 12 loops not long after breast cancer surgery last year. Even though I wasn’t able to prepare as much as I would’ve liked, I would like to do more than last year and see how far I can go.”

Another female runner, Stepanka Sprincova, is planning to run between 9am up to 5pm before she heads to work.

“I did six loops two years ago, so anything better than that I’ll be happy,” Sprincova said.

“I know I have no chance of winning, but I still want to take part in the race. I’m trying to do longer runs every week so this one will help.”