August 30, 2007

Dear Sports Editor,

The World Track and Field Championships has been going on since Saturday the August 25, and I have seen a couple of reports in the Gazette so far. I like the way your journalist compresses the results of the popular events. This allows me to briefly know what's going on, and if I want to read deeper into any discipline than go to www.iaaf.org for that.

How good it would have been to have read of locals results. The grapevine said a male and female athlete could have represented Bermuda. How true is that? Remember Brian Wellman, a winner.

There are athletes here and abroad who can either qualify or near qualify for the upcoming Olympics, and I hope these athletes have let the Bermuda Track and Field Association know that they would like to qualify for the Olympics by now. There is very little time left, and qualifying times or distances must be accomplished by a certain date, thus if they have the backing of the Bermuda Track and Bermuda Olympic Associations, the road to qualifying may be easier.

No athlete will represent Bermuda without going through the governing body, which is good, and the criteria the BTFA and the International Association of Athletics Federation make should be adhered to. Maybe some more Bermuda dollars could go to a few aspiring Bermudian athletes so they may get even more specialised training, and go to more selected track and field Meets in hopes of Olympic qualifying, if not too late. These dollars could be an addition to what would be given to them if meeting the earlier BTFA and BOA criteria.

The present athletes whose goals are to represent Bermuda, are paving the way for the younger athletes. Go For it Athletes?

Roger Lambert