Former Bermuda three-time Olympian Troy Douglas yesterday vowed to fight hard to clear his name after he was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Douglas, who failed a test for the steroid nandrolone just prior to the opening of the world championships in Spain, where he was due to compete for his adoptive country, Holland, hit back after a day of being hounded by news media there and abroad.

His denials may have been leant some weight by the suggestion of an athletics medical chief that spiked food could be responsible for the recent flood of positive tests for nandrolone.

There was also additional support for the 36-year-old sprinter from Bermuda's sports minister Dennis Lister, who, like youth and sports director Brenton Roberts and Bermuda Olympics Association general secretary John Hoskins before him, cautioned against condemning Douglas before the full facts were known.

Douglas vehemently insisted that he was innocent of any wrongdoing that could end his career.

"I've been talking to the media all day about this: naturally I strongly deny using any drugs. I have had eight tests so far this year and all were negative. Yes, I am stunned by this news and intend to fight it because I am innocent,'' he said.

Just as Jamaica and their sports ministers came to the defence of Marlene Ottey who also denied the use of drugs, Mr Lister believed that Douglas was clean, although admitted he was stunned by the news.

"`My initial response was one of shock and dismay, but knowing Troy and his personal stance against the use of any performance enhancing drugs in sports, we know he is very adamant against anybody being involved,'' said Lister.

"I was totally taken back to hear his name linked to these recent incidents of persons being tested positive. But at this stage I still feel that it is early in the game and we need to wait until all of the facts are placed on the table and there is a full disclosure as to where the traces of the drug came from that was found in his body.

"My understanding is that the traces are of a very small amount and I think we will need to see what evidence there is to support what they are trying to claim.

Yesterday's spiked food claims were made by IAAF medical chief Arne Ljungqvist.

"It may be totally inadvertent,'' he said in an interview on the eve of the world championships, which have been overshadowed by a series of high-profile doping scandals.

Experts have been puzzled by the sudden resurgence of Nandrolone, a muscle-building drug that has been around for decades and detectable in urine tests for years.

Sprint stars Ottey and Linford Christie are among those athletes who have tested positive for Nandrolone. On Thursday, Douglas' name was added to the growing list.

The wave of Nandrolone cases also spread yesterday to the Arab Games in Amman, Jordan, where two Moroccan women athletes were stripped of their medals after positive tests.

"The seeming epidemic spread of this stems from food supplements spiked with Nandrolone,'' Ljungqvist said. "The problem is that athletes may have taken it without real control. The food supplements may not have been labelled.'' Supplements, increasingly popular with athletes looking for a legal way to sharpen their fitness and performance, are readily available.

"The producers of food supplements are not producing solely for the sports community,'' Ljungqvist said. "They do it for the general public, for elderly people. In some countries, even today, some of the banned substances are not looked upon as pharmaceutical drugs.'' Ljungqvist said the unusually high number of veteran athletes being caught could be the result of their reliance on food supplements to stretch their careers an extra few years.

Ottey and Christie are 39, Douglas is 36.

Under IAAF rules, an athlete is considered guilty of a doping offence based on the presence of a banned substance in his body -- regardless of how it got there.

Ljungqvist said this policy will not change even if athletes took Nandrolone unwittingly. But he said athletes could have a legal case to challenge any suspension from the sport.

"If the athlete can clearly show that he has got a contaminated substance or food supplement from somewhere, then it's up to the lawyers to evaluate,'' he said.

Ljungqvist cited a recent case in his native Sweden of an athlete who took "what was supposed to be a pure substance and turned out to be contaminated.

He was disqualified from competition but exonerated from any further ban.'' Ljungqvist said the burden of proof would be on the athlete.

"The athlete has to make sure that no banned substance enters his body,'' he said. "He is responsible. The athlete can't just claim, `I didn't know.' He has to give solid proof.''