at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Tumbridge is the reigning Pan Am Champion in the three day event, having struck gold in Winnipeg last year on her mare, Bermuda's Gold. She was also the Bermuda's Female Athlete of the Year. The flag ceremony will take place on Friday in the Olympic Stadium.

The Island's representatives, Tumbridge, sailors Sara Lane Wright, Peter Bromby, Lee White, swimmer Stephen Fahy and triple jumper Brian Wellman will be dressed in traditional red Bermuda shorts or skirts, a navy blazer with crest, white shirt and the official tie. Black shoes and navy socks finish the outfit.

All of the athletes will take part in the march and they will be joined by Bermuda Olympic Association president Austin Woods, secretary general John Hoskins, chef-de-mission Philip Guishard and sport managers Joan Taplin and Judith Simmons. Wellman was the last to carry the flag, having done so at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

The flag will get its first airing tonight at the traditional welcome ceremony held at the Olympic Village outdoor amphitheatre.

An Aboriginal group will perform a traditional greeting and there will be a brief speech before the flag is raised to the strains of Bermuda's song, This Island's Mine.

The flag will be the 154th to be raised and the ceremony will be a joint one with Moldova, Belize, Dominica and Libya.

Meanwhile Tumbridge, whose event takes place between September 20 and 22, said she was pleased her mount had retained a good level of fitness after a long flight from her farm in England and the subsequent quarantine period that ended last weekend.

Worthy of flying the flag: Pan Am Games gold medalist and Olympic flagbearer MJ Tumbridge.

EQUESTRIAN RAH