successive Bank of Butterfield Mile victory and that elusive sub-four minute time in next month's International Race Weekend.

O'Sullivan, the mile legend now based in Philadelphia, was one of the first elite runners to confirm his return to the Island for the competition.

The event's chief organiser, Philip Guishard, said: "I suspect the significance in knowing he's coming back so far in advance is that, with his improved knowledge of the course, he's really going to go for the sub-four minutes.'' In both 1996 and in January this year, O'Sullivan, 36 in three days' time, came from behind to take the Front Street race.

But on neither occasion has he been able to claim the $10,000 bonus prize for the first person to complete inside the four minute mark nor claim the record for the race, set by Joe Falcon in 1993.

O'Sullivan, however, reduced his time by close to two seconds in this year's triumph, an achievement which brought him within five hundredths of a second of Falcon's 4:04.2 time.

Meanwhile, Anthony Whiteman, the 1500m British Olympic runner, and O'Sullivan's main rival of the last two years, has yet to confirm his return.

Whiteman, 23, who recently finished second in the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, makes no secret of his opinion that winning the race is secondary in importance to beating the four minutes mark.

Guishard said: "We haven't heard from our main European supplier yet but we do have to leave some spaces open for the Europeans.'' One person definitely not returning is Kenyan Stephen Nyamu, winner of the International 10K last year in 29:03.

However, Guishard said women's winner Elana Meyer, of South Africa, was expected to return although he had not been able to get in contact with her agent so far.

Meyer, 31, won silver in the 10,000m at both the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

A total of around 50 elite athletes have applied to take part in the Race Weekend, which takes place between January 16-18 and also features the marathon and half-marathon along with children's and celebrities' races.

Guishard said he was in the process of whittling that down by about half.

Overall, more than 1,500 runners are expected to take part in the January 16-18 races, most of them from the US.

Deadline for early entries was yesterday but runners can still sign up until just before the Friday Front Street Mile -- albeit at a higher entry fee.