Bermuda may yet send a track and field contingent to the Island Games.

Athletics? national-governing body, Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA), will consider that option this week.

However, BTFA president Judy Simmons said that event would have to take a backseat to certain international commitments.

?We are going to be meeting this week to sort out our schedule because we have the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships which are July 8-11 and the World Youth Championships in Morocco which start on July 13,? explained Simmons.

?Those are two financial commitments and we have athletes who have qualified to go to Morocco and it?s all clashing with the Island Games which are July 9-15. So we?re going to look at everything.

?Our first obligation has to be to our region and to our world governing body and those are the things we?re obliged to go to. We have to look at our financial position. It?s all about finances.?

The cost factor, she stressed, was quite prohibitive, particularly without any sponsorship.

?Nobody is saying to us that anyone (athletes) who is going will be paid for. Travel is going to be around $1,500 to go to the Shetland Islands and BTFA officials would also have to go so we just have to wait and see.

?We are looking at it very carefully along with all the things we need to do and the personnel that we need to accompany athletes.?

Asked if BTFA would sanction athletes who would pay their own way to compete at the meet, Simmons insisted ?we would still have to send officials because it?s under the national governing body and we don?t send athletes (anywhere) alone?.

Last week, chairman of Bermuda Island Games Jon Beard revealed the Island would compete in 12 of the 17 disciplines to be showcased at the biennial meet for nations with populations of less than 125,000.

At that time, he pointed out that athletics was again a glaring absentee from the list of sports in which Bermuda would compete, adding that the BTFA had not replied to an invitation to send athletes. However, he pledged to do all he could to accommodate any late request by BTFA for inclusion.

?The initial deadline has passed for registering which sports your country will compete in but, if track and field turned around and said ?yes, we want to send somebody?, we would do all we could to try and get them in,? said Beard.

Bermuda ? who grabbed 37 medals including 15 golds at the 2003 Games ? are aiming to reap as much if not more success this year.