Devon Bean and Terrance Armstrong both suffered early elimination on the opening day of a watered down track and field programme at the University of Manitoba stadium on Saturday.

Bean bombed out of the 100 metres with a disappointingly slow 10.83 seconds which left him trailing in seventh place in the second of three semi-finals.

And Armstrong simply found the pace too hot in his 800 metres semi, as he too followed home in second from last place in one minute, 51.09 seconds, in what he considers the weaker of his two events.

Despite many of the big names of athletics skipping this meet, the depth of talent in countries such as the US, Canada, Brazil and Cuba means that they will likely continue to dominate.

Bean entered the 100 with a best of 10.5 this year but that was never going to be fast enough to challenge the likes of America's Tim Harding who, although ranked third in the world this season, regularly has to play second fiddle to the likes of Maurice Greene, Ato Boldon and Donovan Bailey, all of whom have stayed away.

As it was the 23 year-old Bermudian finished almost four tenths of a second behind the sixth-place finisher from the Netherland Antilles. The heat was won by USA's Bernard Williams in 10.28 "I expected to run faster,'' admitted Bean. "But this year, running-wise, it hasn't been going too well. I've been up and down.'' Bean revealed he had now scrapped his name from the 200m entry to concentrate on last night's long jump following an encouraging performance in Arizona last week where he jumped 25 feet, seven inches, less than four inches off Dennis Trott's Bermuda record.

Armstrong, meanwhile, finished almost four seconds behind American Trinity Townsend (1:47.64).

With only 13 entrants, it had been expected that the 800 would be run as a straight final. However, organisers opted for two heats with the first three in each and two fastest losers going through. Despite the comparatively slow time, Armstrong said his confidence hadn't been shaken for this Friday's 1500m.

"They're totally different races. The 800 is totally out of my league and I accept that,'' he said. "For a miler like myself this was just a chance to get out on the track, shake off the butterflies and get ready for the main event.'' Another disappointing performance came from cyclist Elliot Hubbard who, like Armstrong, decided to enter a second event at the eleventh hour.

But after toiling against fierce winds on a tough 55 kilometre course, the 26-year-old Navigators pro was regretting his decision to ride in yesterday's time trial.

In a quality field of 18 riders which included Canada's Commonwealth Games gold medallist Eric Wohlberg, former American time trial champion Dylan Casey, and Colombia's Victor Pena, seventh in this year's Tour of Italy, Hubbard could manage only 13th place in one hour, 17 minutes and two seconds -- more than nine minutes down on the victorious Wohlberg. Afterwards, he admitted it had been a struggle he would rather have avoided ahead of his speciality, next Wednesday's 203K road race.

"The head wind out there was brutal. I didn't feel I could get comfortable on the bike or settle into a rhythm. Plus it was a long time trial, which made it an even worse day,'' said Hubbard.

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