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29 September 2004
MAGDEBURG – The banned steroid testosterone was found during a raid Wednesday at the home of a German athletics coach.
The discovery was announced by local prosecutors, who did not reveal the coach’s name. But the SC Magdeburg club said that Thomas Springstein was the man in question.
Springstein was the mastermind in the doping affairs of two-time 1991 sprint world champion Katrin Krabbe and Grit Breuer in the early 1990s and was banned for 11 months along with the athletes.
He faces up to ten years in prison if found guilty of having violated German medication laws.
The German athletics federation DLV requested the raid after a tip-off, possibly from an athlete who has no left the Magdeburg club.
DLV president Clemens Prokop said: “The issue must be cleared up. If we as a federation receive information about violations of law then we are obliged to pass it on to prosecutors.”
Prosecutors said in a statement there was evidence that the “defendant regularly gave several of his athletes, some of them underage, medication which included forbidden doping substances and can lead to health problems”.
Springstein is still the coach of Breuer, who is also his partner, and also trains the 2000 Olympic 800m champion Nils Schumann.
The 46-year-old could not be reached for comment because he was on holiday together with Breuer.
DPA
Subject: German news