soon be on its way to Bermudian triple jumper Brian Wellman after it was disclosed yesterday that two Bulgarians had tested positive in back-up drug tests.

Triple jumper Nikolai Raev and long jumper Daniel Ivanov will be stripped of their bronze medals and also face four-year bans after failing back-up tests.

It leaves Wellman, who finished fourth, to move up to a third-place finish and collect his first medal at a major meet.

Raev and Wellman both jumped 17.27 metres (56 feet, eight inches) but the Bulgarian won the medal because his second best jump went farther than Wellman's.

Frenchman Pierre Camara won the gold medal while Maris Bruziks of Latvia won the silver.

Yesterday when reached in school in Arkansas, Wellman said he had not heard anything officially, though he was looking forward to receiving the medal.

"I would have preferred to have won the medal in Toronto, to have stood up on the podium,'' the University of Arkansas senior said. He showed no sympathy for the athletes who, depending on their ages, could have their careers ruined by the ban.

"If you do the crime you've got to do the time,'' Wellman added. "I have no remorse for people who do things like that to get an advantage over other people. They obviously needed major help in order to compete.'' With any taking of illegal drugs, he says it is not worth the risk. "You can see what it does to people. Quite a few people who do it end up getting caught. It has long-term effects, you see guys getting liver transplants.

"I wouldn't say it's as widespread as other sports because athletics have better drug testing in place than other sports like football, soccer and tennis. By comparison their drug testing is behind.'' Raev and Ivanov tested positive for amphetamines. "We sent an expert to attend the second tests and she informed us that the back-up tests also contained amphetamines,'' a Bulgarian Athletic Federation official said.

Doping is a highly sensitive issue in Bulgaria following their weightlifters' shame at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when two winners were stripped of their titles for drug abuse and the entire team was sent home in disgrace.

Wellman admitted winning a medal should not have come down to a ban on a rival. He said he had done well enough in his early jumps to have been in contention for first place.

"I'm disappointed with myself that I didn't win a medal outright. In fact I should have walked away with the gold but I made a few technical mistakes.'' Wellman is due home soon for the Government Sports Awards Ceremony on May 26 and after that will concentrate on a series of meets in Europe, culminating with the world outdoor championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in August.

Next year he is looking forward to the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, and also has his sights set on the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

"When I get out out of this sport I'm not going to say, `what if','' Wellman promised.

BRIAN WELLMAN -- First medal at a major meet.