GOVERNMENT'S annual Sports Awards should be a celebration of the best talent this tiny Island has to offer - and as we've seen year after year there's plenty to choose from.

But the celebration we witnessed on TV last Thursday night, much like those that had gone before, did scant justice to our sporting heroes.

Instead, the audience and the athletes were subject to a poorly-prepared, hurried, made-for-TV (and made rather poorly at that) presentation that left most of us reaching for the TV remote.

Why is it that a supposed gala awards ceremony such as this was squeezed into the shortest time span possible, simply to satisfy the needs of TV?

Those chosen to be honoured barely got a moment to bask in their glory.

If our local station wants the exclusive rights to these annual awards, then the least they can do is make the effort to provide a presentation worthy of the recipients.

And if they can't produce that - and clearly they cannot - wouldn't it be better for those who organise the awards to set their own agenda and simply allow TV to offer tape-delayed edited highlights which hopefully would be somewhat slicker than the disjointed, disorganised 'live' version that occupied our screens last week?

For a start, the invited guests chosen to recount the accomplishments of those being honoured might at least try to give the impression that they know something about the recipients and something about their sport.

It would be also so much more entertaining if there were a master of ceremonies with the ability to capture his or her audience - someone perhaps such as Charles Jeffers.

For many years Jeffers controlled the microphone at the annual International Race Weekend awards and did a marvellous job - his charisma, quick-thinking and acute sense of occasion transforming what might easily have been a rather tedious, repetitive sequence of hand-shakes into an evening of memorable entertainment.

Of course, preparation is the key to any successful ceremony, and while organisers should be complimented on the research carried out on each of those honoured, it was the actual presentation which let them down.

If we're going to honour our top sportsmen and sportswomen, let's at least do it in a manner that makes them feel special.

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ON the same topic, it won't have gone unnoticed that Clyde Best was finally recognised with a Sports Citation last Thursday - more than 20 years after his glorious soccer career came to an end.

Hopefully, Shaun Goater won't have to wait as long for a similar accolade.

Organisers have argued and continue to argue that the reason Goater isn't included among nominations is that he is a professional player - which presumably means that all others nominated are amateurs, the definition of which these days is somewhat difficult to determine.

With all due respect to sailors Peter Bromby and Paula Lewin, who were mighty impressive last year, in the eyes of most Bermudians there was only one Sportsman of the Year in 2002 - Shaun Goater.

What a pity he didn't get as much as a mention.

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NEWS this week that two invited athletes had tested positive for drugs following last month's International Race Weekend shouldn't be frowned upon.

What it proves is that Bermuda's drug-testing policy is working. Unlike some countries, we are doing our bit to weed out the drug cheats.

Long may it continue.

- ADRIAN ROBSON