Buoyed by his performances this season, Bermuda-born sprinter Troy Douglas plans to continue running two more years.

Though not reaping as much success as he had hoped for, he says the results of his track exploits and support from athletics peers and the athletics fraternity in The Netherlands - for which he now competes - have spurred him to extend his international campaign to 2004, including the Athens Olympics.

Earlier this month, Douglas (above right) - who turns 40 on November 30 - reached the 100-metre semifinal in the European Championships (missing a finals' berth by one hundredth of a second) and placed seventh in the 200-metre final (20.73 seconds) at the same competition.

Days later, at an IAAF Grand Prix meet in Austria, he was third in the 200 metres (20.56 seconds) and fifth in the 100 metres. Last Friday, he finished sixth in the 200 metres at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix in London.

“My goals this season were to reach the finals of the 100 and 200 at the Europeans and go for a medal. I knew I was a medal candidate but, as the year progressed things changed, and I missed some Grand Prix competition because a lot of Americans who ran well early in the year got all of the lanes in Europe.

“So it was difficult for me and I had to run at little meets here in Holland which was okay but - by the time I went to the Europeans - I missed that sharp competition of the Grand Prix circuit. I was disappointed about the 100 but I was able to pull myself together to focus on the 200.

“I did not achieve what I wanted on the track but I learnt a lot; enough to make we want to compete for two more years,” he told The Royal Gazette, speaking from his home near Amsterdam.

In January, Douglas, who captains the Dutch relay squad, was named the country's No.3 sportsman for last year by a leading sports magazine. It was a year in which he bounced back from a two-year drug ban to break the national 100-metre record three times and the 200-metre record once.

“It's good to be back and to be running this fast. I came back on top, not only physically but mentally also. My goal was to come back and have the form I had in 1999. I didn't necessarily want to run this fast, I just wanted to have the form.

“What happened in Edmonton (Canada at last year's World Championships) was special. Most of my colleagues welcomed me back with open arms. They were happy to see me back and that gave me an extra boost,” said Douglas, who has always declared his innocence despite a positive test for the anabolic steroid, nandrolone, in 1999.

Looking ahead, he plans to compete in Italy in two weeks and is optimistic of repeating last year's outcome at that event.

“I won (the 200 metres) there last year with the tenth-fastest time in the world.”

After that he will compete twice in Holland where he is second on the Grand Prix circuit.

Thereafter, his attention turns to next year when his sole focus will be the 200 metres.

“My goal is to take it one race at a time and to get in shape and to be able to get to the finals of the 200 in Paris (World Championships). I've had a lot of runners - Frankie Fredericks, Darren Campbell and others - telling me ‘Troy, you have a better chance in the 200 than in the 100. You're a pure 200-metre runner - stop running the 100'.

“It's given me confidence to hang in there for two more years. So I'm going to focus on the 200 and relay for 2003 and in 2004, just the relay.”