U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK AND FIELD TRIALS : 400-Meter Run Delayed Again : Jurisprudence: IAAF might change stance on banning those competing with Reynolds. Event now starts Tuesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Butch Reynolds can run at the U.S. Olympic trials, but it didn’t say when. The men’s 400-meter race was postponed a fourth time Sunday, as track officials scrambled to buy time for an 11th-hour compromise suggested by the president of the international track and field federation.

The preliminary heats of the race, which were to be run Sunday at 10 a.m. PDT, were rescheduled for Tuesday, which was to be a rest day. The postponement was necessary, officials said, because of the abrupt change in the position of Primo Nebiolo of Italy, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

According to officials here, Nebiolo suggested this compromise on Sunday morning: drop the threat of “contamination” against the 31 other runners in the race, even if the still-banned Reynolds runs. Such a decision to waive an IAAF rule requires the approval of the IAAF Council. Nebiolo said he needed the extra time to contact the 23 council members and decide by Tuesday.

TAC officials expect that, because the compromise carries Nebiolo’s stamp of approval, the council will approve. That expectation has raised the hopes of the runners, the majority of whom say they will run if the rule is waived. The compromise, if accepted, probably will end the specter of a boycott of the race by the rest of the field.

Left unresolved was the question of possible sanctions against Reynolds, the 400-meter world record-holder who was suspended by the IAAF in 1990 after a failed drug test.

Although the question was not answered by officials from The Athletics Congress, which governs track and field in the United States, Reynolds’ agent said it was his understanding that the IAAF threat of four additional years of the ban would still be in effect.

Nebiolo’s about-face on the Reynolds matter was puzzling. The IAAF president has taken a position that has been characterized by some as “belligerent.” As Reynolds’ case wended its way through the American courts, Nebiolo’s ire mounted. At stake for the federation is its jurisdiction over its member athletes, no matter where they reside.

After Reynolds received his first temporary restraining order, saying he could compete domestically in spite of the IAAF ban, Nebiolo said: “We will never accept a decision of any court in the world against our rules.”

Even after Justice John Paul Stevens ruled Reynolds could run on Saturday, Nebiolo seemed unimpressed. “We will apply our rules,” he said. The IAAF has maintained the pressure of its threat to ban Reynolds and any runner who competes against him. The federation claims it has begun proceedings to suspend the 10 who ran against Reynolds in two meets earlier this month.

Officials from TAC and the U.S. Olympic Committee say their numerous phone calls to Nebiolo Saturday night and Sunday morning brought about the change. They said that it has taken weeks to inform Nebiolo of the complexities of the American legal system.

“If he (Nebiolo) has reversed his position, it’s because (of) his understanding of our position,” said Leroy Walker, a member of the USOC and a delegate to the IAAF.

Reynolds was at the track Sunday for a television interview, and, as has been his habit, he was escorted by New Orleans police officers and his newly retained bodyguard--Raymond Goff, a nose guard for the New Orleans Saints whose right arm bears the tattooed nickname “pigman.”

Brad Hunt, Reynolds’ agent, confirmed that if Reynolds runs on Tuesday, the IAAF intends to tack four years onto his ban, which expires Aug. 12, three days after the Olympics.

The rescheduling of the race to Tuesday will require operating the stadium and its support facilities an extra day. Mervin Trail, president of the local organizing committee, said TAC has agreed to bear the full cost of Tuesday’s operation, although he could not estimate what the cost would be.