Within the perimeters of Bermuda athletics, nobody can challenge the record of Mike Watson, or dispute his considerable talent.

Over the years he's won just about everything that can be won on the track, on the roads and in cross-country.

And at the ripe old age of 38 he showed last Friday night that the competitive spirit still burns fiercely as he outpaced a strong field of runners to win the local division of the Bank of Butterfield Mile series in record time.

What a shame, though, he then had to cap his night of glory with a vague, somewhat illogical outburst against the local media -- in particular this newspaper.

Those who heard his rantings on both ZBM and VSB might have been at a loss to understand just what point he was trying to make.

From what we understand, he was upset at a story in this newspaper published during the build-up to International Race Weekend pointing to the rivalry between himself and relative newcomer to the Island, David Dunwoody, an Irishman who had the audacity to beat Watson when the qualifying heats for the event were held last month.

This paper, he contended, was attempting to drive a wedge between Bermudians and expatriates.

Mike Watson, of course, is entitled to his opinion -- and over the years he's never been slow offering it to anyone who cared to listen. And like a good tabloid journalist, he's never allowed the facts to distort his argument.

What we actually said in this story, which so incensed Watson, was that he didn't like to lose, rarely did, and would no doubt be eager to inflict revenge on the athlete who had beaten him in the trials, and also the defending mile champion Jamal Hart with whom he'd tussled during the previous weekend's cross country championships.

Nothing, we think, too controversial about that.

Anybody who has followed Watson's career will tell you, indeed, he doesn't like to lose. Few good athletes do.

Unfortunately, what Watson failed to tell his public, was that if the rivalry between he and Dunwoody existed, it did so only at his initiation.

Long before the results of the mile trials were published, even before they were tabulated, and without any prompting, Watson was telling all and sundry including a reporter from this newspaper that "he had run the trials only to qualify'' and would "deal with Dunwoody when it mattered most -- in the Friday night final.'' Of course, he kept his word. But then strangely he tried to accuse The Royal Gazette of creating a rivalry which he now claimed didn't exist.

As we said earlier, Mike Watson is a fine athlete.

How much better he could have been had he been blessed with a pair of legs that could keep pace with his mouth.