The mystery surrounding Raneika Bean's record run in the Carifta Games 100 metres is no nearer being solved, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Amadeo Francis, the North America, Central America and Caribbean representative on the council of world governing body the International Amateur Athletic Federation, has been in contact with Trinidadian track and field authorities since a number of the 11 records set at the meet last month were called into doubt.

Several races on the first morning of the meet were hand-timed -- specifically in the boys' under-17 100m and the girls' under-20 and under-17 100m -- after a new electronic system malfunctioned. Hand-timing is rejected by the IAAF as a means for verifying records as it generally gives an error margin of up to 0.24 seconds.

In one case, where electronic and manual timing were both used, times were shown to be as much as 1.05 seconds out.

However, Francis has still not established whether Bean's heat, in which she is credited with beating Debbie Jones' Bermuda record of 11:46 by eighteen hundredths of a second, was one of those affected, although he has concluded that at least two of the sprint records reported on the Games' web site were erroneous.

Francis, who is also president of the Pan American Athletic Commission, was away on business in Mexico earlier in the week but on his return last night he said: "I was following it up as late as Sunday evening. I have been given promises for the last ten days, but I'm not down there (in Trinidad).

"All I can do is impress upon them the urgency of finding this out.'' Fifteen-year-old Bean went on to win Bermuda's only medal at the meet -- taking the gold in a time of 11.96. She ran slightly faster in her semi-final, coming home in 11.81 -- just outside the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 11.75.

The issue has caused some controversy in Bermuda with some track and field figures astonished that she could have improved by almost a second over a performances a year ago. But Bermuda Track and Field Association have backed her time and accused the doubters of being negative.