Bermuda International Race Weekend 2002 was hailed as a resounding success by Judith Simmons, the race committee chairman, despite what she termed as a few minor glitches that impacted on Sunday's marathon.

Leonard Mucheru, of Kenya, got the ball rolling with his record run in the Elite Invitational Mile on Friday night with Elena Makolova, of Belarus, lowering the women's record in the marathon by 18 seconds, as the Bermuda Track and Field Association paid out $13,000 in bonuses.

But the men's marathon nearly degenerated into farce when Luiz Carlos Ramos, the winner from Brazil, was trapped momentarily in a cul-de-sac along North Shore while the third female finisher, Firiya Sultanova, of Russia, was not listed among the official finishers.

Simmons, who is also president of the BTFA and was in the lead vehicle that struck a race participant who was walking, explained both incidents were out of the control of the race committee.

She said: "You had traffic coming from the opposite direction, Team in Training coaches (leukaemia) running in the same direction as the traffic, then you had the slower marathoners walking along the route. Some of them, even though they had been told several times, were walking three, four and five abreast instead of one and two abreast.

"I've had a meeting this afternoon with their co-ordinators to ask if they can stress with them the importance of the one and two abreast. If you have people four and five abreast, it is very difficult for a lead runner or vehicle to get around them, and that's how the incident came about."

The walker, a woman, was reported unhurt but several hours later at the prize presentation at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, Sultanova, one of the pre-race favourites, turned a few shades red after Annette Hallett, of Bermuda, was called up to be honoured for finishing third.

Sultanova finished in two hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds, but her time was credited instead to Tracy Wright in the official results posted on the BTFA website last night.

"That came about because we had a number of marathoners who finished very, very late," Simmons explained. "For all of our other results, we had the opportunity to check them thoroughly before they were put on the website. And because we had our prize presentation at seven o'clock and some of the runners didn't finish until well after six, getting up to seven, to post those results and have them out in time to determine winners, it was a scramble and we recognise that."

Roger Lee, the BTFA official responsible for results, said yesterday that the correct marathon results would be reposted by lunchtime today.

Simmons confirmed also that Riaan Naude?, of South Africa, was a legitimate entrant in the Local Adult Male division for the Front Street Mile series.

Suspicion was drawn about Naude?'s eligibility for the event when he stated that he was in Bermuda on a three-month working secondment, but Simmons said: "There is no residential requirement. Anyone can run in that race who is not at the level of the elite athlete, as long as they are resident when the trials are held."

She added: "From everyone's perspective it was a highly successful weekend, talking to the participants, talking to organisers like Team in Training. We'll have our debriefing with the police tomorrow. But, from all accounts, we have more or less been told that it was well organised and very exciting.

"Even from the elite athletes themselves, they have praised us for the type of organisation that we've had and the type of event it is. We're very gratified by that but obviously we have to pause to think about the tragedy (the death of Emily Every) that happened - it is something that has never happened before - and just look for any way to improve. We always look to improve and take constructive criticism from anyone about things that we can do."

Simmons was also pleased to know that Mucheru continued to show excellent form after leaving Bermuda. His time of 3:55.54 validated further the race committee's decision to invite him and she is convinced that he can crack the four-minute barrier if he defends his title next year.

"He is a world-class runner," she said. "We did not shy away from choosing people that would cost us more money because we wanted an interesting race.

"It worked out well for us and (the spectators) because they got an exciting weekend package of racing. It really showed people what track athletes can do on the road."