Randy Benjamin?s widow Norma was left ?belittled, slighted and insulted? after being left out of the Hall of Fame festivities on Saturday night.

Bermuda Track and Field Association president Judy Simmons represented athletics administrator Benjamin on stage during his induction into the Island?s official sporting elite and Mrs. Benjamin was left furious that no-one even invited her to the ceremony.

To add insult to injury, Mrs. Benjamin was actually contacted in advance to provide old photographs of her husband, to whom she was married for 15 years and nursed in his final years before he succumbed to ill health, but was then never invited to the glitzy ceremony at the Fairmont Princess.

Of the three Hall of Famers inducted on Saturday posthumously, Benjamin was the only one not to be represented by any family members.

?It really is a slight and an insult,? said Mrs. Benjamin, who only realised yesterday that the ceremony had passed her by and her husband had been represented by a fellow athletics administrator.

?It is just not right. I don?t know how this has happened but it upsets me that I was never offered an invitation for the event, especially after they asked me for pictures.

?Even if they didn?t ask me they could have asked any number of other relatives to go, there are lots who live here.?

Legendary cricketer Nigel (Chopper) Hazel was represented by his two nephews Neil and Neville Virgil, while DJ Williams, who was admitted to the Hall of Fame jointly with Benjamin, was represented by his son Alastair.

Simmons, who looked slightly embarrassed to be on stage sitting in one of the ten grandiose leather chairs for the inductees, represented Benjamin.

?I feel it is very belittling that this could have happened,? continued Mrs. Benjamin.

?It would have been protocol and courtesy to have invited me and I would have loved to have come to represent Randy.

?It is a shame I never had the chance to be there for what might have been a very special night for his family.?

Benjamin was a successful athlete and then administrator and was a founding member of the Bermuda Track and Field Association and the Carifta Games.

Saturday?s second instalment of the Hall of Fame ceremony saw Hazel, May 24 legend Ed Sherlock, World Cup tenpin bowler Hattieann Gilbert, boxer Troy Darrell, sailor Kirk Cooper, Olympic bronze medallist Clarence Hill, footballer Carlton (Pepe) Dill, the 1967 Pan-Am silver-winning football team, DJ Williams and Benjamin inducted during a nostalgic journey through Bermuda?s sporting past.

A short film was shown about each entrant and then they, or their representatives, were invited on stage to say a few words.

Sherlock, to cheers from his family and supporters, spoke emotionally while both Hill and Darrell shed tears.

When asked by what she would have said about her husband, had she been given the chance, Mrs. Benjamin said, after apologising for not having time to prepare, ?Randy was a wonderful man and a man who was devoted to sports.

?Even towards the end of his life he was trying to organise a football tour to Jamaica for some of the young guys and when he was in hospital in his final days, he was still asking me to record overseas sporting events, such was his love for sport.

?He would have been greatly humbled and proud to be rewarded with a place in the Hall of Fame.?

Head of the Hall of Fame Board of Directors Rick Richardson was not available for comment yesterday.