Southampton Princess on Saturday, about 80 gymnasts from here and the United States will take part in the biggest gymnastics meet ever held in Bermuda.

And though his "to-do list'' is still two pages long, Craig Christensen, meet chairman of the Bermuda Triangle Challenge, is confident that all will fall nicely in place by the time the opening ceremonies begin at 9.30 Saturday morning.

The carpet has to come up in the three adjoining rooms of the Atlantic Room to make way for the flooring which will cover a space of 145 by 80 feet which will hold the four disciplines -- beam, bar, vault and floor.

"This is the biggest meet ever in Bermuda and we're trying to make this a real first class event so that we can encourage more and more teams to come down every year,'' said Christensen.

He explained that the meet had been in the planning for about a year and that because of the publicity already some four American colleges and universities had already expressed an interest in coming down next year.

"Effectively we're working on next year already,'' said Christensen.

"Obviously in the initial year there is a tremendous amount of ground breaking.'' This year there will be seven US teams participating, including Hill's Gymnastics, the former gym of Olympian Dominique Dawes. They will be sending a team of 15.

Other teams are the American Twisters and International Gold of Florida, Gym Strada of Virginia, and Gym Beez of Pennsylvania. Champlain Valley of Vermont, against whom Bermuda competed a few years ago, will also be here.

Bermuda will be represented by a team of 22, ranging in age from seven to 17 and in levels from recreational, optional to level nine, in which six will compete. Most of the competitors for the one-day meet are aged between 11 and 16; overseas participants are levels 8-10.

There will be both team and individual competition and a local group, the Hotshots, will put on a demonstration during the interval.

Eight visiting judges, among them Shirley Tranquil, who has visited Bermuda before, will be on hand.

"We're starting to develop a good base of gymnasts,'' Christensen said of the Island programme. Travelling to a number of overseas meets in the last couple of years, including the Gym Carolina Classic, American Twisters Meet, Peachtree Classic, Regional Qualifiers in North Carolina and the US IGC Meet in Florida, has helped the development, he said.

"The standard is very high for the overseas competitors,'' Christensen said.

"But I think you will also see what quality the Bermuda gymnasts are putting out at this stage of their development.

"They (locals) have been training now under coach Wali Mustafa for about 25 hours a week for the last two-and-a-half years, six days a week.'' Christensen said that the support of Southampton Princess, where the teams are staying, and US Air, enabled the meet to come off.

"We had been talking about it for a year, and to find a place took us to Southampton Princess,'' he said. "In my opinion they shared the vision of doing something good for Bermuda. I would say they have been extremely accomodating to date. It works out absolutely terrific to be able to hold the meet where the competitors are staying.

"The support from local businesses has been absolutely tremendous. Without them we would never be able to hold this meet.'' Bleachers have been brought in and will seat in the region of 400 spectators while an electronic scoreboard will also be used.

Tickets -- $10 for adults and $5 for students -- are available by calling 292-7474.

TWO TO WATCH -- Sasha Christensen (above) and Nakia Manders (top) will be among the Bermuda representatives at an international gymnastics meet this weekend at the Southampton Princess.