The Irish Cycling Federation announced yesterday that Micheal Fitzgerald and Simon Coughlan have been suspended for three months for using banned substances which have been defined as light stimulants.

Fitzgerald, from Clonmel but not attached to any club, was tested after stage four of the Prutour in Britain in late May and his urine sample contained ephedrine above the permitted level. He said he had taken the herbal product for a number of years and all previous tests had been negative.

Fitzgerald won the junior tour in 1992 and was senior road race champion in 1995. He won two stages of the Tour of the North at Easter and his only other success this year was in the Stamullen Grand Prix on April 18th.

Coughlan, from the Navan club, won the junior tour the year after Fitzgerald. He was tested after the fourth and final stage of the Tour of Ulster on May 3rd and was found to have used pseudoephedrine above the allowed level.

Coughlan said he took cough mixture for a cold, which he bought in a chemist's shop.

The riders were disqualified from the events they were in when tested and suspended for three months from last Friday, June 18th.

The ICF have carried out 38 tests this season, many more than any other Irish sporting body.

A doctor found guilty of giving drugs to East German athletes was given a six-month suspended prison sentence by a court in Berlin yesterday. The 56-year-old doctor was accused of helping to cause bodily harm in over 70 cases by the tribunal which blocked the release of the man's identity.

Up to now the inquiry's heaviest penalty had been a fine of nearly $24,000 handed out to the ex-head of East Germany's medical sports service.