Amid all the talk about Leonard Mucheru returning to run under four minutes in the men's Elite Invitational Mile, one Bermudian is quietly confident of distinguishing himself in the main event of International Race Weekend's opening night.

United States-based miler Terrance Armstrong flies into the Island tomorrow to lead the local challenge in Friday night's Elite Mile.

Having finished a creditable fifth (4.15.38) last year when Kenyan Mucheru set a blistering new record of 4.02.6, he is determined to do even better this time.

“I should be in fairly good shape so I am looking to improve on my placing last year. I am not sure who is going to be there but it should be a pretty decent race,” the 31-year-old said yesterday. “I have not really raced this year so I don't know where I stand as far as my fitness goes. Training has been progressing the way I would like, so from that I can only determine that I am in fairly decent shape right now.”

In preparation for Friday night's assignment, Armstrong has been building up with a lot of indoor track work and “concentrating on speed more than in the past”.

Despite the sub-four-minute expectations, he is not targeting a particular time.

“Times are not a factor in this type of race. It's a two-turn stagger. You can't really go out there and say ‘I would like to run a certain time or lap' because you can have factors like the wind to deal with.

“I just want to compete with the best of them, hope I have a great day and do as well as I can,” he said.

Armstrong may also run Saturday's 10K, depending on how he feels after the Elite Mile. Usually, he noted, he would arrive on the Wednesday before the Race Weekend to give himself time to adjust to the conditions here but work commitments at his accounting job have left him with just a day in Bermuda before competition begins.

“I'll have a day and a bit. Coming home to that humidity from the US is a little tough. Hopefully I can adapt to it.”

Beyond this weekend, Armstrong is “looking for a great year” with some more 800-metre races, both indoors and outdoors.

The athlete's goal is to represent his country in this year's major championships such as the IAAF World Championships and the Pan American Games.