The athletics association in his adoptive country of Holland yesterday disowned sprinter Troy Douglas -- at the same time as the former Bermuda competitor was protesting his innocence of using a banned substance.

The National Athletic Union of the Netherlands (KNAU) said the results of his test for the steroid nandrolone were so convincing that they would not help him get a second opinion.

But Mr. Douglas hit back, saying: "It is ludicrous for us veteran athletes like Christie and Ottie to be taking any of these pills. I'm 36-years-old and I've done everything I want in the sport and I'm just in there having fun. We are saying `how the hell can this happen, we just don't know'.'' KNAU director Arie Kauffman told a Dutch newspaper that no new test would be offered. "We don't have to do this because according to the rules and regulations of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, the athlete has to do this himself,'' he said.

"Furthermore, the result of the first test was so prominent, we don't need a second sample. His urine sample contained beyond all doubt the forbidden substance.'' Further details of the testing procedure that fingered the three-time Olympic semi-finalist, who switched his allegiance to Holland late in 1997, also emerged yesterday.

He provided a urine sample after becoming the Netherlands' 100m champion at a meet in Apeldoorn in central Holland on June 26 with a time of 10.16 seconds.

That was sufficient to qualify him for both the World Championships in Seville which start this weekend and next year's Olympics in Sydney.

The sample was sent to a laboratory in Cologne, Germany, and the result was passed to the KNAU last Monday.

According to Dutch reports, that sample contained so much nandrolone that the KNAU immediately took action to stop him participating in further competition.

Ironically, the news reached KNAU director Piet van der Molen just a day after he had told an IAAF conference that with all the recent positive tests, he would not be surprised if a Dutch athlete was found out.

Mr. Douglas, at a training camp in Spain, was contacted by phone for an explanation and responded with a fax saying he had not used any doping substances nor taken anything that might contain it.

Mr. Kauffman added: "That was very nice of him, but the IAAF was not convinced by his explanation and we cannot change the results or interpretation of urine analysis.'' Mr. Douglas was then reportedly asked to leave and, back in Holland, initially used his wife as his spokesman. She told reporters camped outside his home that he was "absolutely not guilty'' of taking illegal substances.

The news has met the same reaction of shock and disbelief in Holland as back here in Bermuda -- and has left Mr. Douglas facing a possible two-year ban which would effectively end his career.

Mr. Kauffman said: "The Douglas affair is indeed a tremendous setback for athletics in Holland. Our country has a number of well known athletes and Douglas is one of them. It's a very big blow that such a person should get caught.'' Douglas vows to fight back, Page 17 DRUGS DGS