Equestrienne MJ Tumbridge was last night rewarded for her loyalty to Bermuda when she was named Female Athlete of the Year for 1999.

And sailor Malcolm Smith, three times a winner of Achievement Awards, finally landed the big one when he was honoured with the male title in the ceremony attended by Premier Jennifer Smith and Youth and Sports Minister Dennis Lister in the plush surroundings of the Hamilton Princess.

Tumbridge, winner of the Island's first gold medal at a Pan-Am Games, revealed she had turned her back on offers to compete for Britain and the US in recent years after leaving Bermuda to further her three-day eventing career overseas.

She told The Royal Gazette : "I have been asked on occasion to ride for other nations, they've said `gosh, we need you on our team' but I've never been tempted. It's always been Bermuda.'' She added: "It has its ups and downs, it's been hard to get the support for equestriennes, but I'm the type of person who thinks if you stick at it, educate people enough and perhaps impress them enough, then they'll be there for you.

"And I have to say, with my gold medal, I have felt the warmth of Bermuda.

"People who I've never seen, who don't know one end of a horse from another, have come up and said `well done'.

"I've always been proud of being Bermudian, but tonight I feel more proud than ever.

"Winning a gold medal is an excitement of its own. But by being given this award I feel like I've continued to win that gold medal.'' Tumbridge's golden moment in Winnipeg last August was enough to hold off the claims of sailor Sara Lane Wright, a silver medallist in the same Games in the Laser Radials class, and cyclist Melanie Claude.

But she declined to take all of the credit.

"If you don't have a good horse it just doesn't work, no matter how good a rider you are,'' said Tumbridge, who was carried to her Games victory by her mount Bermuda's Gold.

"I feel like I just had to mention her. She helped me to win the medal.

"She's my best friend, she's everything anyone could ever want in a horse and I'm so lucky to have had her.

"I would have loved her to have been here sitting in the very front row!'' Smith, meanwhile, also a medal winner at Winnipeg, where he took a silver in the Laser class, compared the wait for this award to the time it took him to win his first major competition.

"It took me 19 years from competing in my first Sunfish Worlds to winning my first one,'' he said as he cuddled his silver trophy.

"And in the case of the Pan-Am Games, it was 1987 when I competed in my first one and another 12 years before actually winning a medal.

"You make your goals, stick with it and eventually it comes around to you.

"I've come close to winning this award, being runner-up maybe two or three times like last year after winning a World Championship and a North American Championship.

"But what the Government and the Bermuda Olympic Association are really looking for, I think, is medals.

"They're looking to put Bermuda on the map. And that's what the athletes in all the sports are also trying to do.'' Smith had already ruled out an Olympics challenge later this year, and hinted after winning his medal in Canada that he might retire from the sport.

But he confirmed last night that he was only winding down his sailing career not walking out on it.

"I'm stepping down the fitted dinghy racing,'' said Smith, who became a father for the second time while competing at the Pan-Ams, "but I'm going to continue sailing on a regular basis. There might be a CAC Games or some other overseas regattas left in me, some Race Weeks.

"I couldn't retire from this sport, to walk away from it would be virtually impossible -- I'm too addicted to it.'' Double delight: Equestrienne MJ Tumbridge expresses her delight after being named Female Athlete of the Year while (below) male winner, sailor Malcolm Smith, poses with Sports Minister Dennis Lister and Premier Jennifer Smith.

EQUESTRIAN RAH SAILING SLG