Middle-distance runner Tamika Williams has broken the national 800-metre record and qualified for the Commonwealth Games.

Competing in the final of the 2002 Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University in California last Friday, the Bermudian clocked 2:05.25 minutes.

While she finished fifth in that race, it was a significant milestone as it eclipsed the 2:05.62 set by Jennifer Fisher in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in March 1995. It also meant Williams had met the 2:06.00 qualifying standard for the Commonwealth Games - the Island's first female track and field athlete to book her flight to Manchester.

However, speaking from her California base yesterday, the 23-year-old said that while pleased to have lowered her time into the 2:05 zone and set a record, it's but one step on a long road.

"It's definitely a relief to have qualified already but I am working towards running a whole lot faster than I did on Friday night. So, it's just one step, as far as I am concerned, to a bigger goal."

That bigger goal is to represent Bermuda in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She also hopes to compete at next year's IAAF World Championships.

Williams, who moved to California to train with a professional club - the Nike Farm Team - last September after graduating from the University of Richmond, has made a welcome comeback after injury at the end of last year.

"It was very disappointing. I didn't think I would even be running the indoor season but my coach - Frank Gagliano - let me run one indoor race and I've been dropping times since then. I've dropped almost five seconds in my 800 metres in the last month from my previous best time. I knew I was capable of a 2:05."

For the Commonwealth Games, her ambition is to make the final and, by then, to be running 2:02. She figures the race will be "open" given the times of the top competitors.

"I think the race could go anywhere from a 1:56 or 1:58 - if Maria Mutola from Mozambique runs - and the rest of the field could be anywhere from two minutes flat to 2:02 or 2:03. So it's very open," said the former winner of the Bank of Butterfield Mile.

Though this is her first athletics record, Williams is the holder of a national swimming record and originally competed in that sport at college while running for relaxation.

After failing to make Bermuda's 1998 Commonwealth Games contingent, she joined her university's cross-country team and enjoyed it so much she switched fully. However, she never made it to NCAA level and, deciding she still wanted to fulfil her "track potential" she determined to give it a shot with the Nike unit which boasts some top athletes, including the American women's 800-metre record-holder, Nicole Teeter, who won Friday's race.

"All of us train on a daily basis for 2004. We have meets throughout the year and it's just hard-core training for the next couple years, trying to achieve our respective goals," said Williams of her programme.

At present, her life is extremely full as she juggles training with graduate school (Masters in education) and a teaching job.

ln addition, she was recently engaged to Michael Granville; also an 800-metre runner who holds the American high-school record in that event. Like his fiancee, he is aiming to qualify for the next Olympics.