could be viewed as being even more rewarding if approval is given to send a karate team to the Pan-Am Games next year.

The Bermuda Olympic Association are expected to meet this week to discuss the possibility of sending a Bermuda karate team to the Pan Ams for the first time. The Games committee has confirmed that karate will be introduced to the competition for the first time next year in Argentina.

Dwayne Willliams, chairman of the BMAS, said yesterday that his club was optimistic that the ruling would be made in their favour and open the gates for Bermuda's karate involvement in the Games for the first time.

"I guess you can say that we are cautiously optimistic,'' he said.

One advantage for the local karate fraternity is that they do not have to go through a rigorous qualifying procedure like soccer. The rules call for karate qualifying by simply being a member of the Pan American Union of Karate (PUKO) and Bermuda has been a member for some time.

With the possibility of participating in the Pan-Am Games next year, combined with the fact that a team will definitely go to the PUKO Championships in Colombia in May, the Bermuda National Karate team is on a high despite having just returned from the recent 12th World Karate Championships in Kota Kinabula, Malaysia, without much success.

They nevertheless view participating in Malaysia as giving the members the opportunity to gain invaluable experience at the international level.

According to chairman Williams, "the local contingent performed well despite losing out to Mexico in the first round of kumite (sparring) competition.'' The six members of the Bermuda team were Bobby Smith, Freeman Smith, Anthony Ball, Arnold Allen, Nigel Williams and Oscar Lightbourne.

The eventual team kumite champions were France who defeated pre-tournament favourite Great Britain in the finals. Japan were overall medal winners with 11 medals including seven gold.

The prestigious World Karate Federation championship and congress was host to a record 78 countries. The biennial championship will next be held in 1996 in South Africa.

National coach Al Wharton is eager to see Bermuda regain the momentum and reputation it earned in the early 1980s when Bermuda teams finished out of the medals but was in contention in the late rounds of several championships.