Winnipeggers, perhaps taking a lead from their neighbours to the south, couldn't stop slapping themselves on the back.

"Best Games Ever'', "Pan-Ams do Canada Proud'', "Ten out of Ten!'' were just a few of the self-congratulatory headlines the day after the 13th edition of this quadrennial sports festival came to a close on Sunday night.

Nothing, of course, is wrong with national pride. And the Manitoba natives showed plenty of it as they repeatedly strained their lungs to the sounds of `O Canada' in celebration of the country's 64 gold medals.

And when the scribes weren't writing about themselves, taking pot shots at the Cubans over another string of defections or engaging in what has become a favourite Games pastime -- spot the next drug cheat -- there were a record 42 sports at venues in all corners of the city to keep them preoccupied.

But wasn't there a story somebody missed? What about little Bermuda? A gold, two silvers and numerous near misses from a dot of a nation that would comfortably fit into any number of Winnipeg's city parks, with a population no bigger than the combined attendance for the opening and closing ceremonies.

In sporting terms, this might have been Bermuda's finest hour.

Winnipeg has always been a happy hunting ground for Island athletes. Back in 1967, our soccer team snatched silver and Richard Belvin a sailing bronze. But in the 30 odds years since only equestrian Peter Gray with a fortuitous bronze in Indianapolis (he actually finished fourth) and Paula Lewin with a bronze in Argentina had enjoyed the privilege of a place on the Games podium.

In the past three weeks, Bermuda has almost doubled that medal count, but more significantly demonstrated that in just about every sport entered, we can be competitive at this level.

Granted, the mighty USA left many of their stars at home, but the hosts, Cuba and the South Americans saw that as an opportunity to showcase their own talent, and took full advantage.

While track and field suffered most from the Americans' absence, there were other sports where even their best weren't good enough -- a case in point being the three-day event in which Bermuda's MJ Tumbridge outrode the USA's Atlanta Games silver medallist, David O'Connor, a man still revered as one of his country's leading equestrians.

Malcolm Smith and Sarah Lane Wright didn't exactly get a free ride. Their respective Sunfish and Laser Radial fleets might have been small but included a good number of competitors who are virtually full-time sailors.

There were also a few top pros left in the wake of cyclist Elliot Hubbard as he finished on the back wheels of both the silver and bronze medallists in the 203 kilometre road race, denied a medal of his own through a lack of team support rather than lack of speed.

And then there was swimmer Stephen Fahy. Three races in the space of six days, three personal bests, two national records. How many athletes among the thousands who competed in Winnipeg could match that.

A Bermuda national record might be sneezed at by those who play in a bigger arena. But on this occasion both of those marks were sufficient to qualify the 21-year-old Yale student for next year's Sydney Olympics, a standard so demanding that only a handful outside those who reached the final in Atlanta three years ago will now be heading Down Under unless they show significant improvement.

If this is beginning to sound like the same aforementioned backslappers, then so be it.

Bermuda has a right to be proud. Just about every sportsman and sportswomen the Olympic Association picked for these Games, justified their selection -- not least the ten pin bowlers who, while they flopped as a team, came close in the form of Dean Lightbourn to adding to the silver medal that Antoine Jones and Conrad Lister unexpectedly won in Kuala Lumpur last September.

Jones, Lister and team-mate Steve Riley, along with the four women, Dianne (Bobbie) Ingham, Pat Price, June Dill and Darnell Raynor, on their own admission, never found their touch.

Yet their unfailing exhuberance and enthusiasm won the Rock a whole new family of friends and supporters.

The infectious spirit of Bermudians competing abroad never ceases to amaze.

The roar that echoed around Le Club La Verendrye each time Lightbourn scattered all ten pins drowned out any vocal support the hometown Canadians enjoyed.

And it was the same at the equestrian centre in Birds Hill Park when the Canadians, realising their own riders couldn't win gold, threw their support behind Tumbridge. A more popular winner, one couldn't imagine.

If there were underachievers at these Games, they arrived by way of Bermuda Track and Field Association's often dubious selection process. The BOA, of course, have to rubber stamp any names put forward by athletics' governing body, but one wonders how long they will be willing to underwrite those whose performance in reality never seems to match their potential on paper.

Devon Bean claims to be Bermuda's premier sprinter and long jumper. And that may be true. But first at the Olympics and now among far inferior competition in Winnipeg, his results suggest he doesn't quite belong in such exalted company.

Brian Wellman, while unquestionably having served as one of the greatest performers and ambassadors in Bermuda's history, sadly now seems to be well past his peak. In a woefully weak Winnipeg field, he could manage no better than fourth, hitting the dirt more than a metre short of what he would regularly achieve in those halcyon days of 1995.

Wellman no doubt desperately wants to close out his career at the five-ring circus in Sydney. But on the form he's shown over the past two years it's unlikely he can challenge for a place in the final let alone contend for a medal.

Nobody shows more heart on the track than Terrance Armstrong, but he too couldn't put together the numbers that got him this far in the first place.

Kavin Smith, as gifted an athlete as Bermuda has ever produced, would have performed as well if not better than any of the above had he been given the right encouragement to train for either the Pan-Am marathon or 10,000 metres.

That such encouragement wasn't forthcoming again suggests all is not well with track and field in Bermuda.

Too much talent seems to be falling by the wayside and at the risk of infuriating those who feel there's a conspiracy to discredit the BTFA, it needs to be said again -- track and field requires a thorough overhaul.

Our bowlers, swimmers, equestrians, sailors, cyclists and even gymnasts have demonstrated that bigger doesn't always mean better. Bermuda teams can no longer be picked just to make up the numbers.

Tumbridge, Smith and Wright, and before them, Wellman, Clarance Saunders and Lewin, have set a standard which defies anyone to suggest we can't compete on the international stage.

Riding high: MJ Tumbridge overcame America's best in the three-day event, where she took gold on her mount aptly named Bermuda's Gold.

PAN AM GAMES PAN