Dear Sir,

Negative and misleading headlines sell newspapers. This is a fact we all agree on.

Two headlines in Sports Section referring to the 2004 Bermuda International Race Weekend I feel got it wrong.

?Road race festival losing its lustre? and ?Lack of Funds to blame for stay-away athletes?.

Both these headlines refer to the elite, invited athletes which number 30 people.

The race committee and its sponsors never seem to get the recognition for the thousand plus visitors we bring to the Island.

I wish the Sports Editor had been on Front Street at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning to witness the 970 runners and walkers start the Bermuda Marathon and Half Marathon. Ask your reporters, Matt (Westcott) and Dan (Rutstein), and your photographers, they will agree the atmosphere was electric. The weather was perfect. The Half Marathon record was broken.

Yes, we do need another major sponsor like we had with the Bank of Butterfield, ADT, Eastern and Adidas. A new sponsor would gain so much community recognition for supporting this worthwhile, successful event. We are extremely grateful to the Bermuda Department of Tourism, the Bank of Bermuda and the 30 plus Bermuda companies who donate goods and services for their continued support. The Department of Tourism is pleased with the 14 percent increase in overseas visitors for the weekend.

The Bermuda Race Weekend covers everything a sponsor should look for ? helps the economy by bringing in over a thousand visitors in the quiet shoulder month of January, filling large and small hotels, helping taxi drivers, Hamilton merchants (and) brings the community together ? entrants range in age from 12 years to 89 years.

The Race Weekend is organised by the Bermuda Track and Field Association, a registered charity, as a fundraiser in partnership with other local charities and volunteer groups ? Bermuda Diabetes Association, St. John Ambulance Brigade, Radio Society of Bermuda.

We could not do this without the hundreds of volunteers who recognise the importance of this event. These volunteers include school children fulfilling their community service requirements. We also partner with North American charities ? Leukaemia-Lymphoma Society, American Stroke Association, Arthritis Society of Canada and Why Me Inc. All these people work together to make the Bermuda Race Weekend a huge success. talked about lack of funds to attract more top athletes. We have never paid appearance money. We cannot afford to offer $50,000 prize money and a car. We can never hope to compete with the huge marathons that have 20,000 entrants ? Bermuda is not big enough.

We were fortunate to have Joan Benoit run in Bermuda before she was a ?world beater?, before her silver medal in the Olympics. Grete Waitz loved Bermuda, had friends here, and used Bermuda as a winter training base. Top class ?world beaters? demand appearance money.

Personally I feel the money is better put in the prize money rewarding those who win races.

The weather ? what can I say. Saturday was awful at the 10K start. It would have been nice to have some shelter at the National Sport Centre ? but that?s another issue.

Weather has cancelled the Bermuda Jazz Festival, delayed the start of the Goodwill Golf Tournament, delayed tennis tournaments and sailing matches. Runners, golfers and rugby players can compete in any weather.

Bermuda Race Weekend was started as an event in the shoulder tourism months to attract visitors to Bermuda. Race Weekend is held during the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend and as many visitors mention Bermuda is a perfect winter break from the cold North American climate.

The Bermuda Race Weekend has been a huge success in attracting visitors to Bermuda.

Contrary to the headline ?Lack of funds to blame for stay away athletes? we attracted several hundred more athletes in 2004. As a volunteer I recognise that criticism is good and one learns from one?s mistakes. I just get tired of the continual bashing.

As I said at the beginning, I guess one has to accept that negative headlines sell newspapers. When we announce record number of entries in our press release it gets buried on the third sports page. Hundreds of volunteers have spent hundreds of hours during the last year to put Race Weekend together. You all did a tremendous job. We make mistakes, we apologise (some people are unable to accept an apology).

I love volunteering for the Bermuda Race Weekend and the Bermuda Track and Field Association. Love sitting at the Information Desk and answering all the questions and trying to find solutions to problems. I love seeing the repeat visitor come back. They give us a hug and some even bring us gifts of candy. Thank you John and Jane Turrentine and Franco Sfarra.

I am also grateful to all the visitors and local athletes who congratulate and thank us for a great weekend.

Congratulations and a big thank you on a job well done to all the volunteers and to the Bermuda community for coming out to support the runners and walkers and making the 2004 Bermuda International Race Weekend a huge success.

See you again in January 2005.