eyelid on a place in the final of the 200 metres at the World Track and Field Championships in Athens, Greece.

His heroic effort in the second -- and by far the toughest -- of two semi-final heats came up an agonising one hundredth of a second short.

The 34-year-old veteran of three Olympic semi-finals ran one of his fastest ever 200s -- a scintillating 20.43 seconds -- but it was good enough for only fifth place in a star-studded field.

Had Douglas clocked the same time in the opening semi-final, he would have cruised into today's final.

As it was he found himself in the same race as Olympic medallists Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Frankie Fredericks of Namibia as well as John Drummond of the US who finished one-two-three respectively in 20.09, 20.18 and 20.29.

Those three are heavily favoured to sweep the medals in today's final.

Completing the top four qualifiers was Douglas' Belgian training partner Patrick Stevens who nipped the Bermudian at the line to clock 20.42.

Qualifiers from a much slower first semi-final were Claudinei Da Silva of Brazil (20.35), Ivan Garcia of Cuba (20.39), Georgios Panagiotopoulos of Greece (20.43) and Obadele Thompson of Barbados (20.46).

Douglas' time was just shy of his national record of 20.41 recorded in the opening heat of the Olympics in Atlanta a year ago.

With the championships drawing to a close this weekend, Bermuda's medal hopes are now pinned on triple jumper Brian Wellman, silver medallist in Gothenburg on the day Britain's Jonathan Edwards smashed the world record two years ago.

However, Wellman, Bermuda's five-time Athlete of the Year, has failed to produce such form since, and it was evident on Wednesday when he barely scraped into today's final.

His silver medal leap in 1995 was 17.62 metres, the same year he jumped 17.72 metres to clinch gold at the World Indoor Championships.

But this year he hasn't managed a competitive jump over 17 metres and on Wednesday was the 12th and final qualifier with an effort of 16.84.

With top qualifier Yoelvis Quesada hitting 17.47 and Edwards 17.28, Wellman will need a herculean effort today to earn a spot on the medal dais.

Troy Douglas