Triple Olympic champion Michelle de Bruin will not have her appeal against a four-year ban heard until May 3rd, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said yesterday. A decision in swimmer's case was expected some time in January but the four-month time limit to hear the appeal will be extended because of difficulty in bringing all parties together.

The CAS had been hoping to hear the case on February 5th, a day after a global conference on doping being staged in the Olympic capital, but again was forced to postpone the hearing because of scheduling problems.

"That May 3rd date should be the final hearing and then there will be a final decision," Matthieu Reeb, counsel to the CAS, said. "There are two reasons for the delay.

"First it has been extremely difficult getting all parties involved to Lausanne at the same time. And there has been a new exchange of written statements, which was allowed by the panel of arbitrators."