Australia's new director of coaching, former East German chief coach Ekkart Arbeit, admitted yesterday that he presided over an era of systematic doping of East German athletes. "I was involved in the system we had and as team leader, I was involved," he said. "We were not working only with drugs, I'm sure we had better training methods. It was part of the selection of talent beginning with 12-year-old people, the most important part of training is from this age."

Arbeit, 56, was head coach for throwing events of the East German track and field team from 1982-88 and chief track and field coach in 1989-90.

Announcing his appointment yesterday, Athletics Australia's executive director Martin Soust maintained Arbeit's background had been thoroughly investigated before the German signed a four-year deal.

But a German Parliamentary investigator into East German secret police files detailing sports drug abuse, Werner Franke, said Arbeit was "a major person responsible for the use of anabolic steroids. At the time he was coach there were plans of who should take how much drugs and how this should be co-ordinated. All that was his responsibility."