Troy Douglas may no longer run for Bermuda but he remains fiercely determined that athletics be restored to its rightful place in the public consciousness.

A year older today at 39, Douglas ventures from the serene to the profane when he says that the recognition accorded Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne, the pick of Bermuda's overseas professional footballers, is not warranted when compared with the achievements of himself, Clarance (Nicky) Saunders and Brian Wellman.

"Nick Saunders, Brian Wellman and myself have done greater, greater athletic achievements at the world level than any football player outside of Randy Horton, Clyde Best," Douglas claimed. "We have kept Bermuda on the map at a sports level. It's great things what these guys are doing in football but we have to respect us as athletes as well. That's one of the things that hurt me, hurt me a lot . . . and it still hurts me today."

Saunders, the 1990 Commonwealth Games high jump champion, retired from international competition not long after the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, with persistent knee problems, but for triple jumper Wellman and Douglas, there was significantly more fuel in the tank.

Wellman returned from his near miss in Barcelona, when he placed fourth, to win the World Indoors in 1995 in the same stadium, with Douglas capturing the silver medal in the 200 metres. Injury and loss of form contributed to disappointments at the next two Olympics, in Atlanta and Sydney, but the former Arkansas stalwart signalled his intentions in this world-championship year by winning the triple jump at the CAC Track and Field Championships in Guatemala and then placing sixth at Edmonton.

The latest achievement confirmed Wellman's excellent record at this level after the disappointment of failing to qualify for the finals in Seville in 1999. He had previously finished second at the 1995 Worlds in Gothenburg, Sweden, when it took a world-record jump by Jonathan Edwards, of Britain, to deny the Bermudian the gold medal, and fifth in Athens in 1997.

"People don't realise what the sixth place that Brian Wellman had in Edmonton really means," Douglas said, "and people don't know that his jump indoors (17.72 metres in 1995) is in the all-time top 10 in the world.

"It really, really irritates me. It really p****s me off that I have to pick up the papers and read about some football players playing in the second division in England . . . kiss my **s. Look at the guys who are in the top ten in the world in their sport. Our soccer team cannot beat an American soccer team and we're proud to be Bermudians who play football. We can't even qualify for the World Cup, but yet we've got one guy out of 60,000 people who is sixth in the world. I mean, give the man some respect; give him some love, basically. It hurts me.

"It tears me up when someone like a Devon Bean (the young sprinter) calls me and says, `I need help. We want to build programmes.' That's one of the reasons I couldn't take it being a Bermuda athlete any more because I'm a professional, but I was never handled as a professional. I was handled as a recreational athlete and it's time we do away with that recreational frame of thinking. We can invest in any other sport or other things outside of sport and be proud of it, but we cannot be proud of the people we nurture. It's about time that we did that."

Douglas, who last ran for Bermuda at the 1997 Worlds when he reached the 200 semi-finals, defends his decision to switch allegiance and rails against any suggestion that he, as a Dutch citizen, has no right to complain about the affairs of the country of his birth.

"I would say, `Kiss my **s' because my passport says Troy Douglas was born in Bermuda," he said tersely. "Any intelligent sports fan respects me for the decision I made in my life because I'm a professional athlete. Any athlete is an opportunist. I know it sounds selfish but I'm an opportunist. I'm just like any businessman down there on Front Street or `back of town' or anywhere you want to go.

"I'm a businessman and I have to invest in myself. If I know people are not going to invest in me, I have to take risks for myself and that's what I did. I am a Bermudian. If you read the papers in Holland, you see Troy Douglas is a Dutchman but he is also from Bermuda. I know who I am and I know where I come from and I'm proud of that."

Douglas admitted that there was no contact with the local authorities at the depths of his darkest moment, after he tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid, nandrolone, but said that any fears that he did not have the support of the Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA) were dispelled when he made his international return at Edmonton.

"There was not much the BTFA could do," he said. "I think they supported me as best as they could. We have no experience in doping cases in Bermuda track and field. They didn't know how to respond other than to hope that Troy would get through this.

"I'm quite thankful for the support that I got although I did not contact anyone in those two years and no one contacted me. But when I saw Gerry Swan, Ms (Judith) Simmons and Brian at Edmonton this year, their hugs told me that they supported me and that meant the world to me. The most important thing to me is that my family believed in me. My family supported me, so that's more than enough for me."

Douglas will return to The Netherlands shortly to embark upon winter base training, with a view to making a strong push at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna, Austria, in March and the outdoor championships to follow in Munich in August.

"My goal is to squeeze the juice out of my career," he said. "My coach (Hank Kraaenhof) is pretty much ahead of the field in the coaching game. He ranks up there among the best in the world. We have always been trying to make me one of the best athletes in the world, and we have that now.

"I will run the 60 metres in Vienna and I want to use that to propel me for the 100 metres outdoors. I need to be consistently under 10.10 for the 100 or even get lucky and go under 10 seconds, which is a realistic goal."

He is further encouraged by the fact that the 100 metres is a Golden League and Grand Prix event next year, providing the potential for a glorious end to what has been a tumultuous, 15-year career. "Everything is pretty much in place. We've worked on the first 30 metres of my race now. The transformation from the mental to the body is there. What we need now is the competition to stamp it into the memory to prepare for the outdoors. I want to be in the top three in the 100 metres at the European Championships, I want to be in the top three in the 200, and I want to make the Grand Prix finals. I need to capitalise on this success that I have right now and springboard from that into my coaching career."

It is a career that does not feature athletics, strangely enough. Douglas has been the strength and conditioning coach for the fourth-ranked men's and women's hockey teams in The Netherlands, replicating the part-time role he served on the ATP Tour during his drugs ban.

"It has always been a huge dream of mine to work within the team system," he explained. "(The hockey coaches) are wonderful people to work with because they have so much international experience. The women's coach is a gold medal-winner and she helped to build the US team. The men's coach is part of the gold medal-winning Olympic team for the Dutch.

"Through 15 years of being a professional athlete, my coach said I should put myself into a position to grow and this is part of it. I give myself a four or five-year plan there, look to achieve a few things, get a good reputation and springboard into other sports."

Discipline has been central to what makes Troy Douglas tick these days, and he credits Kraaenhof significantly, as well as his rivals on the circuit such as Maurice Green and Ato Boldon, whose respect he has earned as the oldest sprinter among the world's elite.

"Hank told me back in 1999 that I needed discipline in my life," Douglas said. "I did not know what he meant by that until one month before my suspension was up. It took me two years to realise. The luxury I have now is that I'm finally at the place I want to be at as a professional athlete. I'm in the best 10 in the world, I can compete with the best in the world and I have all the support in the world to do it.

"(The fight against the positive drugs test) brought me into great debt but I knew that it was only money I lost. My sponsors and my manager helped me out financially and the Dutch federation helped out with research. As a result, my self-esteem, pride and belief in myself got stronger. It also gave me a huge drive to really take a risk in my life because I had everything to gain. It's a nice feeling to gain these things back."