By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

RETURNING to action on the international scene next weekend, O’Neil Williams said he would like nothing better for Christmas than to smash his Bahamian national marathon record.

Williams, still training in Kenya, is scheduled to compete in the Zurich Marathon in Zurich, Switzerland, on Sunday, December 12.

The event will take the competitors from Lake Zurich throughout downtown Zurich.

“I’ve been doing some really good (training) sessions over the last two and-a-half months in preparation for the marathon,” said Williams, who will depart for Switzerland on December 8.

“I’ve been able to increase my mileage so that I can get back to the shape that I was before the injury in March up to about 110 miles. I was doing a pretty good pace of about three minutes per kilometre, which is about 2:06 for the marathon. Not that I’m going to run 2:06, but I am in shape to run very fast next weekend.”

During his last marathon in Izmir in April, Williams suffered an Achilles injury, but he noted that he is now fully recovered and is eager to go to Zurich and prove his point. He’s aiming to run two hours and 15 minutes, which would shatter his Bahamian national record of 2:29:36 that he established on October 20, 2019.

“If everything goes well, I should have the best performance of the season,” he said. “In fact, I’m hoping that this performance will be one of the best that I’ve had since I broke the national record.”

Back on board with the Royal Bank of Canada with their ambassador programme, Williams said he’s grateful for RBC’s purchasing of his ticket to Zurich, but a lot will hunch on how well he does in determining whether or not he will be accepted full time as an athlete’s representative with RBC. “I just want to get this race out of the way to see how things go,” he said. “This will also determine if I should continue in the sport, or I just drop back and start my retirement.”