IT wasn't that long ago that Bermuda struggled to find more than a couple of candidates for Female Athlete of the Year. How that's changed!

At these Commonwealth Games - and perhaps for the first time in Games history - there are more female competitors in the Island contingent (14) than there are men (12).

And by and large it's the girls who have been grabbing the glory.

When the Sports Awards committee sit down later this year to consider nominations, they'll certainly have plenty of choice.

Triathlete Flora Duffy, track runner Ashley Couper, swimmer Kiera Aitken and cyclist Julia Hawley will surely all figure strongly, not to mention reigning Athlete of the Year Arantxa King who can be counted upon to bounce back from her disappointment at failing to reach the long jump final here in Melbourne.

It should make for an interesting Awards ceremony.

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ANOTHER Bermuda female has also been making her mark at these Games in a somewhat different capacity.

Patty Petty, whose behind-the-scenes work has done much to help the growth of triathlon on the Island, was appointed to the International Triathlon Union (ITU) executive last year - a first for Bermuda.

And here in Melbourne, she's become the first Bermudian to serve as a technical official in the Commonwealth Games, playing a key role in the running of last Saturday's men's and women's races.

Now, her presence on the ITU could go a long way to ensuring that a World Cup triathlon returns to Bermuda in the not too distant future.

One high-ranking ITU official told me this week it was case of not ‘if but when' a major international event took place on the Island, possibly as early as this year.

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NOT to be outdone, Patty's husband, Steve Petty, here as manager of the triathlon team, also had a moment to remember this week.

Attempting to get into a hotel elevator, he was stopped by security guards accompanying Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

But the friendly PM gestured for Steve to ‘come on in' and on enquiring about the triathlon official's role at the Games, immediately struck up a conversation about Bermuda before the two went their separate ways.

Unlike his American counterpart George Bush, who's rarely seen without a posse of gun-toting guards in close proximity, Howard doesn't seem to worry too much about personal security.

At the Aquatics Centre the other night, he and his wife mingled freely with the crowd before taking their seats in the stands with the rest of the ticket-paying public.

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NEWSPAPERS around the world are often sought for their opinion on various major issues under the banner of ‘World Press Report', but it's unusual for The Royal Gazette to appear in such lofty publications.

However, alongside Malaysia's Star, The Hindu of India and Scotland's Sunday Herald, The Gazette featured in this week's Melbourne Age, who chose to reprint an article in which Bermuda's chef de mission Phil Guishard extolled the virtues of Australian sport.

“People down here are absolutely fanatical about sport,” Guishard was quoted as saying. “Not only do Australia have great sportsmen and women, but the fans are fanatical.”

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BERMUDA might be one of the smallest nations competing at these Games, but not THE smallest.

That honour belongs to the tiny South Atlantic island of St. Helena who, with a population of just 7,460, have sent four athletes Down Under, two small bore shooters, a swimmer and a marathon runner.

Like Bermuda they've yet to get on the medal table but surprisingly there has been considerable success for some of the other lesser fancied nations, not least the Isle of Man (population 73,000).

Manx cyclist Peter Buckley struck gold in the men's scratch race at the Melbourne Velodrome, giving the small Irish Sea island their first medal in more than 20 years.

And fittingly, it was one small island honouring another as Bermuda Olympic Association president John Hoskins was called upon to make the presentations at the medal ceremony.