Former East German sporting supremo Manfred Ewald has been found guilty of doping more than 100 young athletes.

Ewald has been given a suspended prison sentence of 22 months.

After a long trial he was found guilty of systematically doping the country's young athletes.

His co-accused, the former East German sports medical officer, Manfred Hoppner, 66, was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

The two were charged with complicity in causing bodily harm for administering performance-enhancing drugs to drive young athletes to victory for the international glory of the former communist East German state.

Ewald, now 74, headed the East German Sports Federation from 1961 to 1988.

He was found guilty of making 142 East German sportswomen, mostly swimmers and athletes, take banned performance-enhancing drugs.

During the two-month trial a number of athletes and swimmers testified to having suffered from health problems as a result of using the anabolic steroids.

Witnesses included former shot-putter Andreas Krieger, who as Heidi Krieger won the 1986 European Championship.

She then had a sex-change after years of injections of male hormones.