champion lining up for the starter's gun on May 25 when the annual Marathon Derby race gets under way in Somerset.

The well-known runner, who captured the women's title for an unprecedented sixth straight time last year, yesterday confirmed her participation which ruled out reports that she will watch from the sidelines -- something that overall champion Mike Watson has long disclosed he would be doing.

However, the women's race could be missing one of its elite members because Karen Adams, who placed second to Mewett last year, has been plagued by back injuries and is a doubtful starter.

If Adams does eventually decide to run though, she has made it clear that it would probably be more of a jog rather than a serious effort to challenge the defending champion like she did last year.

"I'm not sure if I will be running at all at this stage. I've had some ongoing back problems and the recent treatment that I have been having hasn't been completed yet,'' said Adams.

"I haven't been training at all for a long run like the marathon, in fact my training has been at a real minimum. My last race was the Corporate Relay in March.'' Last year Mewett placed 16th overall, leading the women home in 1:21:08 with Adams 24th overall and second to Mewett in 1:23:54. Anna Eatherley followed in 1:24:45 ahead of Jane Christie (1:26:11), Dana Bean (1:26:40) and Marie Conroy-Haydon (1:26:48).

Adams said that she expected Mewett to take honours once again with Conroy-Haydon being her strongest challenger.

With Adams not being a serious competitor this year, Mewett appears to be a clear favourite, especially with Eatherley also admitting that she is not in shape to challenge after suffering from illness.

Though completing the SunLife 10-K two weeks ago in the creditable time of 38:40 Eatherley admits that her form going into the half-marathon this year is definitely nowhere near as good as it was a year ago. "Last year I was busy training for the Pan Am Games and most of my prepration was geared for the 3,000 metres. Even still, I was in pretty good shape for the marathon,'' said Eatherley.

"I was really pleased with my performance, but this time I don't expect to be a serious challenger at all. My condition is not nearly where I would want it to be if I intended to be competitive.'' Like Adams, Eatherley picked Mewett to win once again. "She is so experienced over this distance and will be tough to beat even if all of the stronger runners were involved.'' Jane Christie is another familiar face in this year's race. She reckons that she probably would run around the same time as a year ago.

"I just don't seem to get any faster or slower, I'm always around the same time,'' she said. "I tend to go out pretty slowly and hope that someway I can catch up to the others.'' SANDRA MEWETT -- Her would-be challengers are already conceding defeat.