That's long been a subject with which sports writers and editors around the world have had to wrestle, often raising the ire of those who happen not to agree with their views.

Quite simply, there is no cut and dried definition. Don't even bother looking in the various dictionaries, where descriptions are so varied and vague so as to do nothing to settle what remains an ongoing and often heated debate.

The issue has become a hot topic locally in the last week following Bermuda's hosting of the Central American and Caribbean Body Building Championships which some -- mostly those involved in the event -- felt should have been recognised in these sports pages.

While we were well aware of the competition, we chose not to cover simply because we believed body building did not fall under the widely recognised umbrella of sports.

That was a subjective decision taken by myself as sports editor, fully cognisant of the fact that there would be those who took umbrage.

But in the past, believe or not, we've also had calls to include the annual dog show in the sports section. And we're repeatedly under pressure to report on the likes of bridge and chess which, while games requiring much thought and deliberation, can hardly be considered a sport.

Generally, the definition we like to apply to sport is an activity that requires agility, skill and an element of competition.

Body building may require a certain amount of agility, but flexing one's muscles on stage wouldn't appear to take a great deal of skill. Fitness training, on the other hand, which was part of last week's exhibition, may have a stronger argument for recognition. But by its own definition, it's a training activity and not a sport itself.

Sportscaster Nick Jones, himself an avid body builder, is one of those who feels strongly about the issue, and registered his own complaint about the lack of coverage in a letter to the editor last week.

Yet Bill Cook, a respected member of the local body building fraternity, a former top competitor and for many years a judge, conceded in a later letter that he didn't consider it a sport.

And he raised the issue of drugs, prevalent in just about all sports these days, but in particular weight lifting which is perhaps the sport with the closest relationship to body building.

At the recent Sydney Olympics, the entire Bulgarian weight lifting team was thrown out following a spate of positive drug tests. There was even a strong argument put forward that the sport be banished completely because of its historic association with performance-enhancing substances.

If body building were to be admitted to the Games, as has been proposed and as supported by the local federation, it would represent a huge step backwards in the International Olympic Committee's battle to eradicate illegal drugs.

Locally, drug-taking among body builders may not be a major problem -- although no doubt there are some who take the risk -- but worldwide, rightly or wrongly, it is perceived as being part and parcel of professional competition.

So, regardless of whether we call it a sport, the question begs, are the public prepared to embrace it under its current tarnished image? *** TWENTY years ago it rated as one of the most popular sports in Bermuda. And even in the 1990s, road running continued to attract good entries for most of the local races.

So what's happened? A measly 12 teams of four turned out for last Sunday's Corporate Road Relay, and the weekend before had it not been for the schools' presence, entry for the Deloitte and Touche relay would have been similarly poor.

Not that long ago, fields for both of these events numbered between 60 and 70 teams. In its heyday, the Corporate event even topped 100, with the likes of the Bank of Bermuda and companies such as CD&P and AS&K regularly submitting five or six teams.

All of a sudden, the road runners have disappeared.

Perhaps they've found other interests and the generation coming through are preoccupied in other activities.

But far more likely, they've all grown tired of a governing body (BTFA) which for years has inflated its kitty with substantial amounts of cash taken from road runners and distributed it not back into that sport but instead among the handful who participate in track and field.

If ever there was a time for the road running clubs to break away from the BTFA, as has been suggested often in the past, that time is now -- before the sport dies completely.

-- ADRIAN ROBSON