EVERY picture tells a story.

None, perhaps, more poignantly than the image that appeared on yesterday?s front sports page of this newspaper of a lone national squad athlete jogging around the track.

The headline above, ?Gerry has driven them away?, left us in no doubt about the accompanying story.

It was all too familiar.

Articles on a similar theme have been running in this paper for as long as we can remember.

The shambolic state of track and field in Bermuda is nothing new.

And the man responsible, Gerry Swan, no stranger to controversy.

Only this time the story was a little different.

Finally, three of Bermuda?s most respected coaches, Bill Euler, Renalda Swan, and Tony Bean ? all from the ostracised Mid-Island Striders track club ? were prepared to go on record.

Frustrated and exasperated by the manner in which the sport is run, they publicly demanded the resignation of Swan and BTFA president Judy Simmons ? a cry that has been repeatedly sounded in this column (alas, to no avail).

Sadly, they were only echoing the sentiments of dozens of other coaches and athletes who feel the same way but have been reluctant, for whatever reason, to speak out.

The ?sports terrorists? ? sorry Dale, that?s your description not mine ? who have consistently and methodically drained the enthusiasm out of just about every budding club athlete this Island has produced over the past couple of decades, are still doing it the ?Gerry and Judy? way.

And the results are there for all to see.

A week before the Carifta Games in Tobago, we can muster a squad of just 12 athletes.

Talented competitors such as Deanne Lightbourne, Tristan Francis and Lovintz Tota, and many more that we never hear of, have turned their backs on the national programme because they refuse to train with Gerry Swan.

And as we all know, if you don?t train with Swan, you don?t get in the team ? no matter how good you are.

It matters not that Striders have a flourishing programme, employ some of the Island?s best and most dedicated coaches, regularly take their athletes overseas to compete and produce some of the top performances.

In the eyes of our governing body, they don?t exist.

How utterly ridiculous is that?

Wasn?t there an unwritten pact after last year?s much lauded Carifta Games, into which Government ploughed some $750,000, that all those in track and field should work together?

Didn?t Sports Minister Butler make an impassioned plea for unity?

Given the enormous success of last year?s Games, shouldn?t there have been a concerted effort to take track and field to another level?

Of course there should.

But what hope under this administration?

As Euler, Bean and Renalda Swan pointed out, our young athletes don?t want to train with the national programme. Little is being done to help them secure scholarships and we?re producing precious few who can compete on the international stage.

It?s a depressing scenario that has existed for far too long.

The solution, of course, is simple.

Swan and Simmons, despite the unrelenting criticism, refuse to step down. So they must be forced out.

And while Government should only flex its muscle in extreme circumstances to influence governing bodies, there?s quite clearly sufficient evidence to suggest the time has come to use that muscle.

Until harmony is restored and the BTFA are seen to be representing all of our athletes and not just a select few, then Government funding should be withheld.

For all those funds are currently achieving, we may as well toss the same tax-payers? money into the Tyne?s Bay incinerator.