clear his name over drug-taking allegations after his Truth Commission hearing was postponed yesterday.

Douglas, a resident of the Netherlands for whom he now competes, was accused last year of taking the banned substance nandrolone but has protested his innocence and is aiming to prove the drug testing procedure is flawed.

He was due to appear before a panel of lawyers representing Holland's athletics federation yesterday, but the hearing has now been put back to later this week, probably Thursday.

"My lawyers changed the date, because none of my witnesses could make it,'' said Douglas yesterday.

The 200m and 400m runner, who switched his allegiance to Holland in 1997 after living and training there for three years, has been out of competition since testing positive in August last year, on the eve of the World Championships in Spain.

The incriminating evidence came from urine samples, but Douglas believes the test was flawed and will try to convince the hearing of that with the aid of a hair sample, processed by a laboratory in Strasbourg, France, which came up clean.

"The panel will speak to the hair analysis scientist on the phone and there will be two other professors speaking on my behalf,'' added Douglas.

Six athletes achieved qualifying standards for the Carifta Games when Bermuda Track and Field Association held the first of a series of trials at the National Stadium over the weekend.

Thirteen-year-old Clearwater student, Michelle Trott, produced the most outstanding performance, reaching qualifying marks in two events, the under-17 girls 100 metres in 12.6 seconds and the 200 metres which she won in 25.8 seconds.

Danielle Watson, a 13-year-old from Spice Valley, was second to Trott in the 200m but also achieved the qualifying mark with a time of 26 seconds.

Gabriel Wilkinson, fifth in the shot last year at the Carifta Games, qualified for the under-20 discus with a throw of 37.99 metres while Latanya Dickinson put her name up for consideration in the under-20 shot with a throw of 10.45 metres.

Dickinson, 16, competed in Carifta in 1997 and '98 but this will be her first year in the under-20s.

Recent Bank of Butterfield Mile competitors, Shar-dae Whitter and Tiffany Eatherley qualified in the same event, the under-17 1500 metres. Whitter, 14, third to the record-breaking Eatherley on Front Street, won the race in 5:26.8 while 15-year-old Eatherley was second in 5:27.4.

The Carifta Games will take place in St. George's, Grenada at a newly built stadium from April 21-24.

Six more track meets are scheduled before the team is picked, with three of those over two days. The eventual team will warm up for the Games by competing against visiting college teams in the third week of March.

DRUGS DGS