WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Two brothers who played ice hockey for New Zealand have become the first athletes to be banned after an investigation into the sale of performance-enhancing drugs to amateur sportspeople in the country. Mitchell and Lachlan Frear have been banned for two years by the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand (STNZ) after they purchased the banned substance clenbuterol from an illegal distributor in 2014. The website owner Josh Townshend was jailed in May for two years for advertising, possession and supplying prescription medication. Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) investigated Townshend's database and found up to 100 sportspeople as potential clients. Lachlan, who was 18 at the time, had also been targeted by ads from the website that described the product as a "fat-burner".

Source: Economic Times December 11, 2017 04:27 UTC