Government has been forced to back off on attempts to learn more about the racial make-up of Island athletes.

Mystified sports groups say they will refuse to answer parts of a Ministry of Youth and Sports survey seeking information on their overall membership -- its racial, gender and native composition.

Forms were mailed out to the 35 national bodies and clubs early last month but as of yesterday only 12 had been sent back, Ministry director Anthony Roberts said. He acknowledged the race question was a likely reason for the low feedback and as a result now says that "if groups are offended by it, they don't have to send it in.'' The form, a copy of which was obtained by The Royal Gazette , seeks to find out how many black, white or "other'' athletes there are among each sport's junior, adult and senior divisions and further breaks those down into male and female.

But said Ruth Holder, a Bermuda Darts Association spokesperson: "I just can't understand why they need that information.'' Holder was one of several sports representatives to speak out against the questionnaire at Saturday's annual Sports Conference at Bermuda College.

Another was Bob Legere, who sits on both the Bermuda Golf Association and Junior Golf Association committees.

"The only purpose is the purpose of discrimination; there's no other reason to ask it,'' he said.

Not only don't sports bodies want to answer the question, many say they just plain don't know the answer. And they're not eager to find out.

"Several years ago, the BGA advised its public and private courses to not ask on applications about race,'' said Legere. "We no longer do that, not that there were many who did in the first place. But now we're being asked to do it again.'' With some 2,000 members, Legere said he doesn't want to be the one to call members and ask if they are black, white or other. "It puts us in a very bad light.'' The Bermuda Darts Association have 23 teams representing 211 members. Holder said she did not know the racial make-up, noting that seven team captains simply refused to respond to the request. "They only thing we care about is if you're a good player and a friendly, sportsmanlike player,'' she said.

Some sports groups are fearful that information could be used against them, saying that the Ministry's annual grant allocation could be swayed in favour of sports with a more equal membership.

Then there's the legal aspect. Employers, they say, are not allowed to ask questions of race so how could sports groups? "I think it's against the law for the Bermuda Darts Association to have that information,'' said Holder, who said she would respond as best she could to the survey -- but purge any reference to race in the club's records.

The questions spurred an angry debate at the Sports Conference, with equestrian and sailing among other sports critical of the survey. Officials from the Island's two largest sports groups, the Bermuda Football Association and Bermuda Cricket Board of Control did not return phone calls yesterday.

Roberts admitted he was "shocked'' at the reception the survey received.

"It shows we still have a long way to go,'' he said. "I would've thought particularly in sports, which breaks down a lot of racial barriers, that this question wouldn't be an issue in the 1990s.'' He denied the information would be used to determine grant allocation but said that with the millions of dollars Government pumps into sports every year, "We want to know this is having an effect in so far as young people are not only able to, but are, participating in all sports.'' Roberts also suggested the information would be useful to governing bodies "to gauge how successful their programmes and initiatives are in terms of attracting new members to their organisation.'' He argued responses did not have to be an accurate count, just an "intelligent guesstimate'' of racial composition.

Such information was not available on census forms, he said.

Sports groups were also asked how many members were Bermudian or non-Bermudian. "That raised a few eyebrows as well,'' said Legere, adding the BGA would submit only "general data'' to the Ministry.