FORMER Pan Am Games gold medallist MJ Tumbridge has confirmed she will not be representing Bermuda at the Athens Olympics and has criticised as "unfair" the selection process for the Games.

Tumbridge said she was misled by the Bermuda Equestrian Federation (BEF) about what she had to do to qualify for Athens and, as a result, unwittingly ruled herself out.

The equestrienne, who made history by winning Bermuda's first and only Pan Games gold medal in Winnipeg in 1999, has written to the BEF to say she has now dropped her preparations for Athens.

That leaves the way clear for Tim Collins, who has accrued the necessary qualifying points, to represent Bermuda in Greece.

The controversy hinges on Tumbridge's assertion that BEF president Mike Cherry told her in February this year that Bermuda had "a good chance" of getting a wild card entry for the Games. She set her sights on getting that wild card rather than getting Olympic qualifying points.

But Cherry flatly denied that version of events and said it was always clear that a wild card would be "an extreme outside chance".

He said the criteria for qualification had been made public last year by the sport's world governing body, the F?d?ration Equestre Internationale (FEI).

And he added it was wrong for Tumbridge to assume from a newspaper story that Collins had already been selected, as this was not yet decided.

Olympic heartache has plagued Tumbridge in the past. At the 2000 Sydney Games, she made headlines around the world when her horse Bermuda's Gold ? whom she rode to Pan Am glory ? broke a hind leg during the cross country event and had to be put down.

And she never got to the Atlanta Games of 1996 because Bermuda's Gold, her only qualified horse, slipped and fractured a pelvic bone in training days before the event.

In a letter to the (printed on page 22), she spelled out the reasons for her disappointment in the selection procedure and also denied "sour grapes", adding that she had personally wished Collins well for Greece.

Speaking from her base in Surrey, England, Tumbridge said she would be feeling both "saddened and a little peeved" when she watched the Olympics on television this summer.

"I think I'll sit there thinking how ridiculous all this was and how ridiculous it is not having a proper selection procedure," Tumbridge said. "I'll think about how I've got a fantastic horse sitting in the yard who could be at the Olympics.

"I just don't think it should be such a struggle when you're doing well. So there will be two sides to how I'll feel ? saddened and a little peeved off."

Her belief that a wild card was likely meant she planned her spring season to compete in events in Britain. Events where Olympic qualifying points could be gained were outside the UK and she said travelling to those was beyond her budget.

Meanwhile Collins aimed for Olympic points and earned the island an Olympic place by leading the regional zone with 44 points.

With her horse Ginger May Killinghurst having qualified for the Olympics in August last year, Tumbridge was banking on on the wild card to gain entry herself.

She submitted to Cherry her spring schedule, which included no Olympic qualifying points events, and said she heard no response.

However, then she read in a article on April 30 that Collins had been selected for Athens and a wild card would no longer be available.

"I found out that Tim had been selected by reading it in the press," Tumbridge said. "That is not a fair and even selection process.

"My sponsors also found out by reading it in the press. They have said to me, 'you have to pay to go to the Olympics, so we will give you more money'. It's taken me a long time for people in Bermuda to recognise equestrianism as a sport and longer still to build up sponsorship and this will do me no good."

She also rebutted comments made by Cherry in the suggesting that she was "sitting and waiting" with regard to whether she would go to Athens or not.

Tumbridge said that she had competed in 27 events this year and gained 142 British Eventing points. She also pointed out that she had competed at en event in Punchestown, Ireland, in which she finished fourth. In the same competition, Collins finished 19th.

Tumbridge played down the significance of that result in Ireland. "Tim was doing what he had to do to qualify the horse," she said. "Maybe he would have ridden differently if he had been riding to win like I was.

"Before Punchestown, I wrote a letter to the BEF asking to withdraw my name from the Olympics. I'm so disappointed at how selection has been handled, it's not been a fair thing."

Cherry said Tumbridge had made wrong assumptions and said the "door was still open".

"The whole point is that at the time Mary Jane wrote her initial letter, the selection process had not even started," Cherry said. "From what she had read in the , she interpreted that as being the truth and being final, which it was not.

"The wild card was a very, very outside chance. For her, with all her experience to put the emphasis on getting a wild card ? the chance was remote."

Asked about Tumbridge's claim that he had suggested to her there was a good chance of Bermuda getting a wild card, Cherry said: "No. It was an extreme outside chance if nobody qualified. But I said there was a good chance that Bermuda could qualify two people.

"It's a very complex process, but the qualifying procedure was published by the FEI in 2003 for all to see. Anybody hoping to get an Olympic spot should have made themselves aware of what needed to be done to qualify. The qualifying process started on January 1, 2003."

He added that he was saddened by the way things had turned out.

"We have a long history with MJ, who has been flying the flag for us all the time," Cherry said. "I'm extremely disappointed that she has made some incorrect assumptions."

Tumbridge said she warned Cherry she would go to the press and make public the way she felt.

"I believe I am doing the right thing by letting people know there was a reason why I did not get to the Olympics," she said.

"I don't have enough money to take my horse and travel all over the place. I am also bringing up a band of young mares who will be the stars of the future.

"The selection process needs to be made clear, not only for me, but for young riders in future. That is important for the sport."

Now Tumbridge has set her sights on the four-star (top-ranking) event at Burghley in September.

"Burghley is a massive event that brings in huge crowds and I will be representing Bermuda there," Tumbridge said. "For me to do well there would be almost as great as doing well at the Olympics."

Tumbridge has competed for the island in two Olympics, two World Championships and two Pan Am Games and hopes to ride for Bermuda on the big stage again.

"This chapter is closed and now a new one will begin," she said.