other interested parties it is certain that today's CAC Cross Country Championships at Belmont Golf Course (8.30 a.m.) will go on without cross country champion Jennifer Fisher.

Fisher, the leading light among Bermuda's female distance runners, was left off the women's team after she failed to attend training sessions with the rest of the team.

A flood of letters and comments protesting her omission followed, but the Bermuda Track and Field Association stood firm on their decision, even though Fisher's credentials -- she won the National Cross Country Championships, the Front Street mile and was the first local in the ADT 10K -- clearly showed her to be Bermuda's best.

"Jennifer has been performing better than anybody else on the Island for the last four or five months. It's just incredible she hasn't been picked,'' commented George Sutherland, a MAAC representative.

"The decision appears to be one of petty politics intruding where it does not belong,'' added Brett Forgesson, Fisher's Commonwealth Games team-mate last summer in Victoria, Canada.

Still, today will see the likes of Melanie Claude, Julia Hawley, Donna Watson and Sherrie Wade as Bermuda's representatives in the event and chances for a medal -- individual or team -- appear bleak.

The men's team will be led by Tracy Wright and also includes Mike Watson, Roger Dill, Jamal Hart, Harry Patchett and Winton Woodley.

WATCHING -- Top Bermudian runners Jennifer Fisher and Kavin Smith, seen at yesterday's primary schools cross country, will be watching again -- for different reasons -- when Bermuda hosts the 12th CAC Cross Country Championships at Belmont.