IN BRIEF : Physician Admits Giving Steroids to Top Female Sprinter in Canada

A doctor told a federal inquiry today he gave Canada’s top female sprinter anabolic steroids “for no medical reason” because she thought it would improve her track performance.

Referring to 10-year-old medical charts and records, Dr. Gunter Helge Koch told a federal inquiry he injected Angella Issajenko with depotestosterone--a derivative of male hormone--”for no medical reason.”

“It was on demand,” Koch said, adding he first gave her the drug in 1979 to treat chronic anemia. But by early 1980, she had overcome the anemia and was using the steroids to enhance her performance on the track, he said.

Koch was named as a steroid supplier by Issajenko, her coach Charlie Francis and others at the inquiry.

Referring to notes, Koch said that at the time he doubted the drug’s performance-enhancing effects.

Koch said he originally thought it was “a reasonable treatment” for anemia although he knew the substance was banned in international athletic competition.