Anthony Foster, Gleaner Writer

The door to the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin is slowly closing on the five Jamaican athletes who returned positive tests from June's National Senior Championships.

All five athletes were expected to have hearings into their positive tests yesterday, but that did not happen.

Chairman of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission's (JADCO) disciplinary committee, Kent Gammon, confirmed tomorrow as the new date.

"We are going to have to start it in the morning," he said yesterday.

Gammon, in giving reasons for the change of date, said: "We had some matters to sort out".

He added that the extra time would "get everybody ready to put together their cases".

The athletes and the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association are, therefore, now in a race against time to get final entries in for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics which is set for Berlin, Germany, August 15-23. The deadline for final entries is 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Following tomorrow's hearings, JADCO will forward its findings to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which will decide the athletes' fate.

Although the names of the five athletes have not been released, the managers of sprinter Sheri-Ann Brooks and 400m runner Lansford Spence have confirmed that they were contacted by JADCO on the positive tests. Another 400m athlete, Allodin Fothergill, also confirmed that he had received notification from JADCO.

Replacements

Meanwhile, The Gleaner has been reliably informed that overseas-based sprinter Lerone Clarke and Calabar High schoolboy Ramone McKenzie, seventh and fourth in the 100m and 200m, respectively, at the National Championships, have been added to the World Championships team as possible replacements for Marvin Anderson.

Anderson, who finished fourth in the 100m and third in the 200m at the National Trials, pulled up after 120m in the 200m at the Lausanne Grand Prix on July 7 with what seemed to have been a hamstring injury. The injury has cast doubts on his participation at the Berlin World Championships.