Bermuda had two sub-five milers in New York's Fifth Avenue Mile races at the weekend. Lamont Marshall led the way with seventh place in the Championship race where he set a personal best of 4:15.5, as reported in yesterday's Royal Gazette, but he was not alone as Otis Robinson took part in a separate general race and lowered his best time to 4:50.

The Swan's Running Club athlete led thousands of runners until just past the half-way point when he was overtaken, but the momentum of a blistering first 400m carried him to 50th place overall, just half-a-minute behind the winner Mark Ryall, who recorded 4:20.

For Robinson it was his first race as a 34-year-old and he was pleased to collect another PB, his third of the year.

He was just as happy for his countryman Marshall, who had an inspired run in the invitation-only championship race, and he said that a number of Bermuda supporters in the Big Apple had called out his and Marshall's names during the respective races which added to the feeling of pride they had in representing the Island in the city event.

"Lamont looked world class. I think he's going to break four minutes the way he is going. He made me proud to be Bermudian and inspired me," said Robinson.

In race conditions of 73F and 32 percent humidity, Robinson deviated from his pre-race plan by kicking off with an astonishingly quick opening quarter mile before reaching 800m still clinging to the lead with a split of 2:18 before being overhauled by the chasing pack. At 1200m he was labouring but took encouragement from Larry Marshall Snr., who called out from amongst the spectators.

Robinson had flown to New York feeling fatigued from hard training sessions and was unable to shake off the lethargic sensation, even on race day morning. He did some wind sprints to gauge his likely performance and could only manage 5:30 pace.

But he summoned inspiration from his late mother to give him the strength to perform and that did the trick. Bursting to the front of the pack, having started on the second row, as adrenaline took hold Robinson discarded a pre-race schedule that had called for even 70-second mile quarters.

He said later: "I probably compromised my final time by starting so quick. I feel I can get down to 4:30."

Robinson was third male in the 30-34 category, but race organisers combined that category with the 35-39 age group, placing the Bermuda runner 14th overall amongst the 30-39 runners. His next race will be the Heroes-to-Hero 5K in New Jersey in two weeks.