Sports officials were split last night on whether a guilty verdict on former Bermuda runner Troy Douglas, who is caught up in a drugs row, would reflect badly on the Island.

Douglas, a three-time Olympics semi-finalist, goes before a Truth Commission in the Netherlands, for whom he now competes, on Monday, when he will present the argument that he never knowingly took the banned substance nandrolone.

If he is not cleared by the independent panel assembled by the National Athletic Union of the Netherlands (KNAU), he faces a two-year suspension which would effectively end his career and prevent him from competing in the Sydney Olympics.

While Bermuda Olympic Association president Austin Woods yesterday suggested that a ban on the 200 and 400 metre runner might have implications for the Island, for whom Douglas competed until 1997, others, including Youth and Sports Minister Dennis Lister, and Bermuda Track and Field Association president Judy Simmons were not so pessimistic.

Woods said: "I was surprised when this all blew up and I hope he is cleared because if he isn't it doesn't bode well for Bermuda and athletes representing the country.

"There are some questions that would be raised.'' But Lister denied that would be the case. "I wouldn't go that far,'' he said.

"I think it's just an unfortunate situation.'' And Simmons commented: "When the news first broke last year at the world championships some people were saying `thank God he's not running for you'.

But I don't think it will have an effect because Troy has been under the Dutch jurisdiction since he severed ties with Bermuda in March, 1998.

"There is no animosity on our part that he decided to do that. He'd had a Dutch coach even when he'd been running for Bermuda and then he decided to live there and get married.'' And she added: "No matter what the outcome of the hearing, we will always support Troy. He is an athlete who has served Bermuda well and we'd love to see him go to the Olympics again.'' Douglas has spoken out against the testing procedures of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and is hoping that a hair analysis, carried out by a French laboratory at his lawyer's request, will go some way to clearing him of the charge.

However, Douglas knows that the IAAF is likely to stand behind its system -- and even should he be considered innocent by his own federation, he will still have to convince the international body, who are the final arbiters in suspected drug-taking cases.

Jamaican runner Merlene Ottey, who is also at the centre of a nandrolone controversy, will be allowed to run at a German indoor athletics meet this weekend.

The organisers of tomorrow's Karlsruhe indoor meeting said they would let Ottey race, despite appeals from the IAAF and the German Athletics Federation (DLV) not to invite the former 200-metres world champion.

"Ottey is innocent because she has been cleared by her national association,'' Karlsruhe meeting organiser Siegfried Koenig said, adding that at the moment there were no charges outstanding against her.

Ottey tested positive for the banned steriod at a Grand Prix meeting in Lucerne last July, but was later cleared by her national athletics federation.

The IAAF is reviewing that decision, and the 39-year-old Ottey is entitled to race until an arbitration panel ruling expected at the end of February.

DRUGS DGS