Dear Sir,

The news of the untimely passing of Delby Borden has come as a huge shock. I wish to pass on my condolences and sympathies to his family and the entire community of St. David's.

Delby was a loyal servant to club and community and he will be sorely missed.

A better than useful player - few will recall that a 21-year-old Delby was in the Bermuda national team that came so close in 1982 to qualifying for the World Cup the next year - he served the country with further distinction during his role in spawning the most successful youth programme of the past two decades.

Delby's dedication ensures that the progress of players such as O.J. Pitcher, Chris Foggo and Delyone Borden, his son, will be his lasting legacy.

Rest in peace.

DEXTER SMITH

London, England

Dear Sir,

This letter is in response to the article with the heading ‘BTFA forced to reschedule AGM'.

The article states that the reason the Annual General Meeting was postponed was because the BTFA financial documentation was not up to date.

This is nothing new.

I have worked with the BTFA in the past and for your information at the last AGM that was held over a year ago, there were no financial statements or minutes from the last meeting.

However, the election went as planned and Judy Simmons won uncontested.

There was, in fact, another name put forward, but would you want to take on an organisation that was $118,000 in debt and had no financial statements to back up where all the money went.

I would think not!

The organisation, if you want to call it that, doesn't really have a secretary and hasn't had one for quite some time.

This is who our Government have been giving money to. To do what?

They don't put on quality meets, they don't bring in foreign teams, high school or college, they don't hold clinics or bring in international athletes.

What does the money go to?

In the other sports, like road running, swimming and hockey, you don't see these problems.

These sports have many supporters and lots of money coming in and the amount of participants and the level of competition shows.

The bottom line is that there is and has been a huge problem with this organisation and it is about time somebody got to the root of it.

FORMER BTFA EXECUTIVE MEMBER

Dear Sir,

The article entitled ‘Mother calls for track unity' was an excellent article.

I'm glad she has called for all coaches to work together.

However, she doesn't realise that it is not that the other coaches aren't willing, it is the national coach and national president who are solely holding the sport back.

Many coaches in the last few years have tried to work with Gerry Swan to no avail.

His philosophy is ‘my way or no way' - bottom line.

Ask any of the athletes on the team if they want to go away on tour or to a high school track meet abroad . . . they are threatened with expulsion from the national squad for ever.

Deanne Lightbourn, who was featured in the article, is one of the best runners on the Island. She has run times in middle school that high school athletes abroad are struggling to make.

Last year at the Carifta Games, many people didn't know that her legs were severely injured and that she injured them solely training with the national squad.

Even though she medalled, her performances were way below her standard of competition.

This reminds me of another former top 800 metres runner, Tiffany Eatherly. Where is she now? This girl still has the talent to make it to the 2008 Olympics but is afraid to come up to the track because of the national coach.

There has to be a reason why all of these athletes are dropping out of the sport or leaving the national squad. The problems were here way before the Striders brought them to the public.

Now they are coming to a head and more people need to tell the truth and stop blaming a club that has done nothing but promote track and field to its fullest, taken athletes on annual college tours, educated them on the importance of discipline, focus and attitude and helped at least three athletes obtain athletic scholarships.

One of the greatest crimes in life is when good people know something is wrong and do nothing!

T.ZUILL