To some, defeat might be cause for discouragement.

But finishing a disappointing seventh in a race of elite runners headed by Namibia's Frankie Fredericks at the Olympics last month has done nothing but inspire Bermuda's Devon Bean.

The youngster says he was neither overawed by such illustrious company nor overwhelmed by the huge crowd of 80,000 in Atlanta's Olympic Stadium.

"I felt normal going into that heat against runners like Fredericks. I certainly didn't put the guys on a pedestal. I looked at them as being nothing but competitors just like me,'' Bean said recently.

"It was an honour to be in the race with them, but I wasn't nervous and didn't give them an inch. I went out there to beat them just like they were out there to beat me.'' With his first Olympics his most memorable track experience to date, Bean was this week relaxing back at his home in Long Beach, California where he attends school, limiting his activities now to cycling and light jogging until the west coast track and field season begins later in the year.

Bermuda's youngest track and field athlete in Atlanta remains upbeat despite being dismayed with with his Olympic 100 metres time of 10.89.

"The next four years are going to be busy for me. They will determine whether I make track and field my career or not. These are real critical years,'' he said.

"The way I see it I will be 24 by the next Olympics and I have to be busy until then. I have achieved a lot at a relatively young age, but I am certainly not taking anything for granted and I know that it will take nothing but hard work and dedication to continue to improve on my times.'' Bean said he he didn't expect to do that well in Atlanta because he was injured the month before the Olympics and didn't have the necessary race training going into the Games.

"On a scale of one to ten, and putting my personal best at ten, I ran about a five in Atlanta. I wasn't too pleased but under the conditions I couldn't have asked for any better,'' he said.

"I was real happy with my start and with how things went for the first half of the race. I was lacking over the last half because of the lack of conditioning and not being race fit for the last half, but I still felt pretty good.

"Just being able to qualify for the Olympics was a high for me this year.

Anything more would have been a plus.'' The big events on Bean's calender next year are the Senior CAC Games in Puerto Rico in July and then the World Championships, for which he has already qualified, in Greece in August.