Championships is the sort of pressure sprinter Dawnette Douglas dreads.

The 20-year-old University of Maryland-Eastern Shore junior has been tipped as one of the athletes to be left out of the final team. She has already bettered the qualifying mark in the 100 metres for next month's Olympic Games in Barcelona.

"I faxed Stan Douglas (BTFA vice-president for track and field) on Friday some clippings of some times I did,'' Douglas said from her college last night.

Douglas admits she is prepared for the worst, even though she is still confident of realising a dream of competing in the Olympics.

"That's depressing,'' she said of the possibility of being left out. "At first I heard I wasn't going at all but then there was a possibility I might still go.'' The Bermuda Olympic Association has been forced to cut the list of its 23 qualified athletes down to 20 and will name a final squad tonight.

So, Friday night's track meet likely will not influence the final selection even though senior athletes like jumpers Brian Wellman and Nicky Saunders and sprinter Troy Douglas are already abroad competing.

"If they announce it and I'm not going then I'm not coming back,'' she confirmed. "I'm only coming back for this meet. If I go to the Olympics it will be a big stepping stone for me. I kind of think I'm going to go, but I don't want to get my hopes up.'' Douglas, who will turn 21 in Spain on July 21 if she makes the team, has developed into the top sprinter at her school in the past three years. Not bad going for an athlete who was only joined the track team in her first year as a `walk on'. She is now on a partial scholarship.

There are 26 males and 22 females on the school's track team. "This past season has been great,'' she said. "I run a lot better when I'm relaxed and when I can have a good time. When I go to big meets and the girls are real mean and don't want to speak, I don't like that.'' Her best time in the 100 metres was the 11.47 seconds she did in the Lincoln Relays at Lincoln University on May 4, having run an 11.64 at the Penn Relays a couple of weeks earlier.

Her best time in the 200 metres is 24.40 while she has also done a 54.50 in the 400 metres, though she did complete a leg in 53.3 in the 4x400 at the Penn Relays.

The qualifying standard set by the BOA Standards Committee is 11.

60 for the 100, 24.00 for the 200 and 54.00 for the 400.

The former Berkeley and Saltus student also qualified for NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, earlier this month "by the skin of my teeth'' when she was 18th amongst the 18 fastest times for all colleges.

"I'm not telling what I did because it's embarrassing, though I did it in under 12 seconds,'' she said of her performance in the 100 metres.

"I had stopped training because I had to hit the books and I didn't think my heart was in it. I hope to go again next year though.'' Douglas came out of Berkeley with an impressive reputation having been champion girl every year except one.