SOUTHAMPTON'S top athletics coach Mike Smith has welcomed news that supplements containing nandrolone are to be removed from sale in the New Year under new licensing guidelines by the Medicine Control Agency

It is believed that products containing the controversial steroid, which has been at the centre of a spate of positive drug tests in sport, will be available only on prescription.

"This is excellent news," said Thornhill-based Smith, who coaches British 400 metres record holder Iwan Thomas. "My belief is that supplements are dangerous for athletes and that the use of them needs to be controlled.

"This way if someone is found with nandrolone in their system, then it becomes quite clear they have taken something illegal.

"It's good too that it's a government agency who have made this move. Matters of this nature need to be taken away from the sport's individual governing bodies who have their own self-interest to think about."

Smith, however, believes that the nandrolone clamp-down would not cut out drugs cheats altogether. "Unfortunately the cheat in sport simply moves one step on to something else," he said