Bermuda needs to concentrate on developing its huge pool of potential young athletes to prevent them being drawn into a life of crime, according to a top international track and field coach.

A report compiled by Austrian trainer Peter Duerer, who spent six weeks on the Island with his country's sprint team conducting clinics with local youths, claims that such a move would benefit the Island financially as well as socially.

A juvenile involved in a career of crime costs society 500 percent more than the development of an Olympic athlete over the same time scale, it says.

"If one makes a simple comparison between how many Olympic athletes we have and the amount of criminals there are, one will realise the catastrophic state we are in,'' writes Austrian consul Leopold Kuchler in his introduction to the report, obtained exclusively by The Royal Gazette .

And it criticises Government for charging youngsters to use the National Stadium, claiming that leads to the facilities being under-utilised.

"We have basically good facilities here,'' Kuchler says, "but they are not used appropriately. The emphasis needs to be on encouraging young people and not charging them a fee. Our sprinters did clinics with 160 youngsters and we need to continue servicing these kids.

"We need to provide them with incentives to turn away from drugs, harness their abilities and oversee them.

"If we don't do that other things will entice them. They will see things on TV and cable which they will think are hip.

"I strongly feel this is an ideal place for training and we should be doing more to encourage international athletes of high calibre to come over to conduct clinics rather than just having a track sitting there.'' Duerer estimates the athletic potential on the Island to be proportionately about 12 times that of Austria, which has a population of 7.5 million.

In similar clinics he has run in his native land, only one and a half percent of those attending have the potential to become athletes, he argues. In Bermuda, out of the youngsters put forward by the schools, as many as 20 percent have that ability.

Says Kuchler: "That is an incredibly large amount for a small country.

Generically, there is such athletic ability here it would be a shame to see it wasted through the use of drugs and other social ills.'' The study is being forwarded to the Bermuda Track and Field Association and the development board of the new National Sports Centre for consideration.

It makes a series of recommendations including creating: a systematic co-operative youth sport development strategy plan; a national identity and pride; an effective and efficient administrative development commission; a financial development strategy plan; It also outlines suggestions for facilities at the National Stadium and the adjacent National Sports Centre which is currently being constructed.

At the centre of these is the question of the running track at the National Stadium which is due to be torn up in the summer to allow improved drainage to be installed.

The move has prompted bitter discussion over whether the same Rekortan surface should be relaid or a new Mondo track, the main surface for top international meets, should be used.

Kuchler says: "The question is whether we want a speedy track for international meets with top athletes coming in once or twice a year -- in which case you need bounce which the current one doesn't give -- or whether you want one that is good for training and takes care of Bermuda's youth.

"In my opinion, records are not important. The top athletes are not going to come to Bermuda to set records: The arenas in Europe are the best in the world for prize money. Bermuda cannot compete with this.

"You would not drive a Ferrari around Bermuda.''