Mike Watson, former international middle distance runner and a current director of the Bermuda Track and Field Association, has mounted a wide-ranging and comprehensive defence of the governing body?s controversial CARIFTA Games training requirements.

Refuting one by one the long list of accusations levelled at the BTFA, Watson went wholeheartedly on the offensive.

Arguing that most of the complaints have been based on ?malicious rumour? rather than ?established fact?, he accused individuals at the Mid Island Striders track club, a group not affiliated to the BTFA, as well as sports editor Adrian Robson, of ?poisoning the minds? of the general public by launching a bitter and sustained vendetta against the governing body.

Watson said he wanted to clarify a number of what he termed ?misleading comments? which arose during a recent interview with track star Ashley Couper, who laid into the association for its ?ridiculous stance? over this year?s CARIFTA games ? to be staged in Bermuda ? and questioned whether they would be preventing talented athletes from taking part in the prestigious event.can reveal, however, that at a ?frank and occasionally heated? meeting between Association officials and the Island?s elite athletes on Monday night, both parties agreed to put their differences to one side, while individuals like former indoor World Champion triple-jumper Brian Wellman, urged those present to support the Association in its endeavours.

?I have come here to set the record straight so that the public understand the truth,? Watson said.

?I always have and I always will defend the BTFA against attacks from any sports editor or columnist, who has said things without the help of proper, researched information. There has always been friction between me and Adrian over this matter, but I?ve always felt that my beliefs have been based on pertinent truths rather than simply hearsay and rumour.?

?Robson?s track record of just printing or saying anything, without doing the proper research into the basic facts of the situation, is not good,? he continued. ?He was on television the other night saying that there were only 20 athletes training under us. Well, if he had bothered to do some research instead of jumping on the bandwagon of anybody who wants to criticise us, he would know that apart from a small, unaffiliated minority, we now have all the clubs on board and we have over 30 junior athletes training under (national coach Gerry) Swan.?

On the subject of the Mid Island Striders, Watson was no less critical, arguing that some within the club were hell-bent on rubbishing the governing body because of ?personal grudges.?

?It all got blown out of proportion when this particular group decided to discourage their kids from getting involved with us,? he said.

?The criticism in the press has not been based on established fact but jealousy and bitterness. I?m not interested in all of that and I would encourage these people to put their egos to one side. We would like to have their young athletes but, if not, then the show must go on.?

The first ?misconception? Watson addressed was that the BTFA?s insistence that all athletes wanting to be considered for CARIFTA train under a national programme ?is unprecedented or unique to Bermuda.?

Actually, he said such a scenario was ?very common? in many different parts of the world and anybody who says otherwise ?is not in touch with the realties of international athletics.?

?It is hearsay to argue that no other country has established a national squad,? he insisted

?That is a complete misnomer and has been written about in the press as if it is fact, which is just not true. The IAAF (International Amateur Athletics Federation) has encouraged this.

?Before any big event, countries like Canada, Australia and Great Britain all train under a national programme. OK, the number of coaches is a lot more because they are a bigger country with more athletes, but there always is a head coach and athletes technically train under him.?

Referring to the meeting this week, Watson said: ?Brian Wellman was at that meeting and urged senior athletes to support the policy. Now if somebody with Wellman?s international experience is saying this our policy cannot be that unusual.?

Watson also came to the defence of national coach Swan, who has been accused of attempting to alienate local track coaches.

?We, as directors, decided on the way we were going to approach CARIFTA ? under a national programme ? not Gerry Swan,? he said. ?He takes his orders from us. Swan is just doing his job and doing what we tell him to do. This decision was not a knee-jerk one but made after much thought and research. The accusation that he is trying to alienate local club coaches is completely unfounded and is way out of order. I come here with facts, not hearsay.?

After repeated probing, Watson agreed to clarify exactly why the BTFA has insisted on such a training policy.

He rejected the argument that the governing body was ?alienating? coaches, insisting the BTFA had no intention of stopping athletes working with their club coaches as well.

?There are a multitude of reasons why we chose to do it this way,? he said. ?Obviously, we feel that we will get better performances out of our junior athletes at CARIFTA this way. In the past we have found that athletes who just turn up to compete, having been solely with their track coaches, might do well in one or two races or events but when you compete in a big international meet, like this one, a lot more is demanded of you.?

Swan, he said, was not ?doing everything himself?.

?I?m coaching the middle distance people, Roger Dill is coaching the sprinters, Clarence Sanders is coaching the jumps and we are all under head coach Gerry Swan. It is a well structured, professional set up,? he said.

?If some of the coaches? attitude had been different they could have found that they could do some work with their kids anyway. It is not like we are trying to prevent them from having any contact with their coach. That is a ridiculous untruth.?

With regards to the accusation that the governing body was ?pushing away? talented athletes and that, as a result, Bermuda may not boast its strongest team at the Games, Watson said that, after some initial reluctance, ?the vast majority? of track clubs had ?come on board.?

Besides ?a number of uncovered talents in the schools who have no club affiliation? he is confident that Bermuda?s best athletes will be competing.

When asked why there will be no national trials to determine the final team, Watson argued that the system they now had in place was ?far better than a one-off trial.?

?We do it a little differently and in my opinion, better,? he said. ?We will be holding a series of trials ? about six in total for CARIFTA ? and anybody will be allowed to take part, as long as they sign up under our banner. That is common knowledge.

?We will also probably use the National High School Championships as a trial as well and make the selection for the games about a month before.?

Another controversial issue has been the existence of the December 15 deadline which said that all athletes wanting to be considered for the Games had, by that time, to have joined Swan?s national training squad.

So few athletes, it is said, adhered to it, however, that it was alleged the governing body was forced to try and convince people that the deadline had always been flexible.

Watson scoffed at this ?misguided assumption.?

?As a national association, you have to have rules and a proper timeframe,? he said.

?Yes, we did lay down a deadline, but we never once said that we were going to be totally inflexible. It was more of a guideline in order to get things underway quickly.

?We are not stupid ? we also are well aware of the need to be lenient and allow talent which flowers late on to participate. Why is your newspaper trying to paint a picture of us being all over the place and disorganised when the situation has always been so straightforward??

Watson concluded by insisting that the BTFA was ?ahead of the game? in terms of its fundraising and organisation of the Games and urged those still at odds with the Association to come and speak to him, or one of his colleagues, so that disputes ?can be resolved privately and not dragged messily through the press.?

?Remember, I was just an athlete once,? he said. ?And I was well known for getting along with everybody because I communicated and I did not have a stand-offish attitude.

?I did not just form my opinions on what Joe Blow said. I?m not interested in personalities, egos or grudges.

?I just hope athletes or coaches who have a problem will come to us rather than to the press because your paper consistently sensationalises whatever is said, while I would ask your sports editor to become properly informed before he becomes critical. The public needs to be given the truth.?

lSports Editor Adrian Robson is on holiday and was unavailable for comment.