his second fastest 1500 metres time and Damian Simmons clocking a personal best at Northeastern University in Boston last weekend.

At a meet in Tennessee, former Carifta Games gold medal winner, Raneika Bean, established a new State High School Championship record in the triple jump. ..even though her own school in the area doesn't have a track! Simmons competed in the invitational section of the men's 800 metres and Armstrong in the invitational section of the 1500 metres. Simmons ran in the first of three sections and finished second in his race with a PB of 1:56.05.

His previous best was 1:56.9.

The winning time in Simmons' section was 1:55.43 while the fastest winning time came in the third section -- 1:45.

Armstrong ran his first open 1500 metre race of the year and recorded his second fastest time over the distance of 3:42.22 in placing second. (He holds the Bermuda record of 3:41.97 set in June last year).

The quality of competition was quite high with a number of athletes there hoping to reach the qualifying standard for the US National Track and Field Championships later this month.

Simmons will be competing in the National Championships this weekend, while Bean is hoping to return to the Island this weekend, possibly Saturday, which would enable her to compete in Sunday's events.

Raneika Bean competed in the Tennessee High School State Championships, placing fifth in the 100 metres in 12.7 seconds, third in the high jump with a jump of five-feet-six-inches (1.68m) and first in the triple jump -- a new high school state championship record -- in 12.06 metres.

Bean, who won a gold medal in the under 17 triple jump (12.22m) at the junior CAC Championships last year in the Cayman Islands, has been relatively inactive because of difficulty in finding meets.

"Her school doesn't even have a track programme or even a track facility so just trying to find somewhere to train has proven a real challenge,'' said national coach Gerry Swan this week.

"Thankfully she has been able to get into a couple of meets in recent weeks.'' This weekend will see Bermudian Devon Bean competing in the Southern California championships, Armstrong in the Harry Jerome Classic in British Columbia, Canada and Brian Wellman in Germany. Wellman leapt 17.18 metres recently. a few weeks ago.

On track: Terrance Armstrong ran his second fastest 1500m