Bermuda?s Small Island Games delegation may have failed in their bid to host the 2011 Games, but they?ve responded in the most positive way ? by shooting for 2013.

Bid leader John Beard said yesterday that the ?enormously positive? reception their presentation to the Small Island Games congress had received convinced them almost immediately that a follow-up bid would be successful.

He even claimed that the Faroe Islands had been ?so impressed? by Bermuda?s case that they had decided to abandon their original intention to bid for the 2013 Games ?to give us the best shot of winning?.

The Isle of Wight were awarded the 2011 Games last Saturday at a meeting on the Greek island of Rhodes, beating Bermuda by the extremely narrow of margin of 30 votes to 25.

?The feedback we received leads us to feel that we are a strong contender for 2013,? Beard said.

?We may have lost the last battle, but we did Bermuda?s reputation a great service, and hopefully set ourselves to host one of the largest multi-sport events in the world in 2013.?

Another member of the nine-man Bermuda delegation, Bermuda?s assistant national football coach Paul Scope, was equally optimistic and lavished praise on Sports Minister Dale Butler, who he claimed changed several countries minds with a typically electric final speech to the congress.

?He was absolutely sensational,? said Scope.

?The passion of his speech at the end of our presentation made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and everybody was enormously impressed both by him and our bid.

?We were always up against it given how much cheaper the Isle of Wight?s cost estimate was, not to mention the recommendation from the Games? executive committee to back them and not us.

?But in the end we secured nine extra votes and were only three votes away from over-riding the executive committee?s position ? which was a pretty remarkable achievement in itself.?

Scope admitted, however, that no matter what cost-cutting measures they came up with, Bermuda would always be a more expensive island than any other.

But he insisted that Bermuda was capable of putting on a Games ?the likes of which has never been seen before? and that other countries would quickly stop moaning about the cost.

?We worked hard for our 2011 bid to get the costs down,? he said.

?But even after we had negotiated some pretty decent deals with the hotels, the cost of accommodation that we can offer was almost three times more than is available on the Isle of Wight.

?But we were determined throughout the congress not to apologise for the cost factor, and our line was that you would get what you paid for.

?By 2013 as well, the Centre Core of the National Sports Centre should be complete, with the facilities on offer there unlike anything any other island can even dream of.

?But every person on the delegation worked extremely hard to pull it off for 2011 and though we were disappointed to miss out, it was strange because were also euphoric at the response to all our work.

?There?s no doubt in my mind that we are favourites for 2013, and when the time comes to start bidding again, we will be even better prepared.?