The success of the first race of the KPMG junior running series has been overshadowed by claims of a dispute over race fees.

More than 200 youngsters took part in the first race of the year at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday after organisers Mid Atlantic Athletic Club and sponsors KPMG decided to waive the entry charge.

Normally it costs each competitor ?5 to race but on Sunday everyone ran for free.

That decision boosted numbers but led to concern by Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA) in the days leading up to the event.

The Association usually receives 25 percent of all entry fees for sanctioned events in Bermuda and were concerned that making the event a free-for-all would hit their funds.

Organisers are understood to have agreed to pay $1.25 for every child entered and the race went ahead as planned and was, by all accounts, a tremendous success.

However, the concern has brought an angry response from one prominent Island athlete.

Former MAAC president Brett Forgesson described the situation as “ridiculous”.

“I was very disappointed,” said Forgesson, who was involved in the event in a volunteer capacity. “The whole point behind having a governing body is to foster the sport.

“When you have a club that is putting on an event and sponsor that is also paying for the event to go ahead free of charge to participants in order to increase attendance and bring people out, to then have a governing body only concerned that they are not getting something back from it is not the way that they should be running the sport.”

Forgesson said he believed charging $5 would have led to far less youngsters turning out.

“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” he said. “I don't know the numbers exactly but it was close to double the numbers from last year.

“That (the waiving of the fee) is probably a large part of the reason.”

Forgesson alleged the BTFA's request for cash from a free event was ‘unconstitutional'.

“The BTFA's own constitution states that the levy is 25 percent of race entry fees,” he said. “By my calculation 25 percent of nothing is nothing. Really, they have no right to charge any more than that. If a club wants to put on an event free of charge, especially for juniors, there should be no levy.”

Race director Charlie Duffy described the events as “a bit of a storm in a teacup”.

“When we applied for sanction the BTFA, who charge a levy of 25 percent for all receipts, saw we weren't charging and were concerned at that,” he said.

“But we offered to pay the equivalent of if we had charged the same as last year and they said ‘fine'.

“I kind of had this in the back of my mind and when we decided to make it free I thought either the BTFA would go along with us and not charge us anything or would say ‘look, you still have to pay for the sanction'. I was quite prepared to pay it.”

KPMG's managing partner, Bob Steinhoff, did not want to be drawn on the discussions that were held other than to say “we have resolved any differences we had with the BTFA”.

He did, however, say the event was a major success.

“We wanted to encourage attendance. The whole concept of the race is to encourage young Bermudians to participate in sports and particularly in running and this was one of the ways we decided to do it this year,” he said.

“It was a very successful race. We had over 240 youngsters participating and some very good competition. I think the calibre of the competition was very good.”

Asked if the format was likely to be repeated Steinhoff said: “This is the first time that we have waived the fee, but we would consider doing it again.”

MACC president Steve Conway, meanwhile, said: “The matter of the BTFA race levy on this race is being resolved.”