Premier spoke out in defence of the selection process for Sports Hall of Fame on Friday ? in particular regarding Bermuda's sole Olympic medallist, Clarence Hill.

Hall of Fame efforts were met with a wave of criticism when the first ten inductees were announced earlier this month, and Mr. Hill was not among them. Letters protesting the omission were sent to and members of the sporting world expressed their shock at the news, calling for Mr. Hill's induction into the Hall of Fame.

However, Mr. Scott said, not only was the selection process ratified by the House of Assembly, but it was completely unbiased. Then-Sports Minister Randy Horton told MPs about the selection process in a Ministerial statement, and current Sports Minister Dale Butler "had no hand in it", Mr. Scott said.

General control and management of the Hall of Fame belongs to a Board of Directors made up of 8-12 people, and nominations for the first ten inductees were solicited from the public.

The public-recommended shortlist of 25 was then taken to the Board. Each board member was then allowed to cast ten votes in a confidential process which allowed for no absentee voting. The votes were weighted so that each Board member gave their top choice ten points, their second choice nine points, and so on until their last choice, who received one point.

The points were then added up, and the ten who received the most points were inducted, Mr. Scott said. "At the end of the process the Board didn't even know who was chosen until the math was done."

That meant public opinion that Mr. Hill should have been automatically inducted in view of his contributions as Bermuda's sole Olympic medallist "could not be", he added.

"There was no favouritism," he said, adding that may sound like "a strange concept to Bermuda".

However he hoped next year there would be a committee set up to weigh any given individual "one way or another".