Already dogged by a number of transportation problems at these Games, journalists dashing from the Main Press Centre to the National Stadium on Saturday evening were confronted with the most bizarre yet -- a 14-foot python.

The beast, as thick as a weightlifter's forearm, had wrapped itself around the chassis of the press bus, and despite suffering the poking and prodding from a succession of hotel workers and mechanics it wasn't about to budge -- nor for that matter was the bus driver who, with a decidedly worrisome look, insisted he wasn't going anywhere until the reptile was removed.

Half an hour later with the fire brigade now in attendance, and four firefighters pulling furiously on its tail -- every moment captured by a horde of photographers wedged under the bus -- there was still no sign of the python losing its grip.

Reporters were transferred to another bus as the tug-o-war, with the snake winning hands down, continued.

Asked whether the animal was dangerous, a fireman assured: "Not at all sir...providing you get hold of the right end.'' *** BERMUDA'S lone silver medal might pale in comparison with the sackful of hardware hauled in by Australia, Canada and England.

But Antoine Jones and Conrad Lister's strike at the Pyramid Bowl last Sunday leaves the Island lying in 27th place overall in the medal table, above many larger and more populous countries.

With just one day remaining, among those still empty-handed were countries such as Nigeria and Bangladesh.

And among those below Bermuda with just a single bronze were Sri Lanka, Uganda and Zambia.

As for leaders Australia, of their 74 gold, 53 silver and 53 bronze, 48 (23 gold) came in the pool where their swimmers cleaned up.

*** BERMUDA'S chef de mission Jay Kempe made a point of warning all competitors about Malaysia's strict drug laws long before they even stepped on a plane.

And apparently his warning was heeded.

Which is just as well, as on Friday Malaysian authorities again demonstrated why drugs aren't considered a major problem in this part of the world.

A 39-year-old businessman and a 31-year-old unemployed man were both executed in prison after being convicted of smuggling cannabis.

Front page news? Hardly.

The five paragraph story was tucked away on page five of the Kuala Lumpur daily.

*** HOW would Bermuda's Brian Wellman have fared at these Games had a knee injury not caused him to pull out? Judging from the final triple jump results, our five-time Athlete of the Year would have had every opportunity of improving on his bronze at the Victoria '94 Games and quite possibly taking the gold.

Victory here went to a relatively unknown Englishman, Onochie Achike, with a modest leap of 17.10 metres, silver to Ghana's Andrew Owusu (17.03m) and bronze to Kenyan Remmy Limo (16.89m).

While Wellman has suffered a frustrating season in '98, only once going over 17 metres, his personal best of 17.79 would have easily been good enough for gold this time around.

Also absent from the field were a number of top jumpers, including England's world record-holder Jonathan Edwards who, like Wellman, withdrew at the 11th hour.

And while on the subject of `ifs and buts' there's little doubt that Troy Douglas would have cruised into the final of the 200 metres here had he not decided to abandon Bermuda in favour of Holland, which he adopted as his home country last year.

Douglas's time of 20.4 seconds, which won him the bronze at the World Cup in Johannesburg last week, would have been the second fastest semi-final qualifying time here and good enough for bronze in the final.

UNREALISED PROSPECTS -- Brian Wellman, left, and Troy Douglas would have been strongly favoured to add to the silver medal won by bowling's Antoine Jones and Conrad Lister.

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