She is disappointed to be missing out on the Island Games, but Ashley Couper is already setting her sights on a much bigger goal ? the Commonwealth Games.

Couper, who narrowly missed out on representing Bermuda in 2002 in Manchester after an injury-hit season, has been on good form already this year and is hoping to stay healthy to give herself a shot at the 2006 event in Melbourne, Australia.

In the Mount Sac relays last weekend, she ran the 1500 metres in four minutes, 19 seconds, half-a-second off her personal best but, more importantly, the same standard as is required for the Games ? although she wasn?t aware of that at the time.

?Things have been going well for me so far,? said Couper, who began her year with yet another emphatic victory in the Front Street Mile during International Race Weekend.

?I have been training hard and running some decent times. I was particularly happy with my time at Mount Sac. There were some very accomplished girls to run against and I was happy to finish sixth in 4:19 dead.

?It was just outside my personal best and I was very happy with it and am looking to go even faster in my next events including the US Open which is coming up where there will be some very good girls competing.?

Couper came agonisingly close to Commonwealth Games qualification last time around, running 4:20.6 with a stress fracture in a desperate bid to make the 4:20 qualifying mark.

The injury then knocked her out of competition for six weeks and she ran 4:21 in a last gasp but ultimately futile attempt to qualify.

?It was really hard for me because I came so close,? said Couper, speaking from her Stanford University training base in the US.

?I was so desperate to get in but I just couldn?t quite make it. But I would love to go next year if I can make the qualification standard ? it would be awesome.

?The fact that it is in Melbourne is a real draw for me but it would also be a real honour to represent Bermuda on such a grand stage.?

The qualifying period for a major Games is normally a year prior to the event and Couper has been desperately waiting to get some kind of confirmation.

Bermuda Track and Field Association president Judith Simmons told this week the qualifying time for Couper?s event would be 4.19 and that the ?information had been passed onto the Bermuda Olympic Association and the elite athletes would be sent all the information very shortly?.

With the time not only within her grasp, but achieved in the last couple of weeks, it is now a case of staying free from injury for Couper, who is also hoping to represent Bermuda in July in the CAC Championships in the Bahamas.

Her last three seasons have been hit hard by injury and illness, but she is going out of her way to stay fit this year.

?I am being a lot more careful,? she continued, with her usual infectious enthusiasm.

?I am not taking any risks and making sure I have a day off a week from my training. Recently, I was down to compete in a race but my calf was not feeling quite right in the warm-up, so just 20 minutes before we were due to start, I scratched.

?It is not worth being out for six weeks for the sake of one race.

?I am really hopeful about the Commonwealth Games, but if there is one thing I have learned in recent years, it is that it?s not worth getting my hopes up too high.

?I am just going to keep training hard but sensibly and hopefully I can hit the time I need and a lot faster in a race that counts for me.?

If things go to plan, she could join cousin Tyler Butterfield at the Games, if the top amateur cyclist reverts back to the triathlon for the event in Melbourne next March.