The pair were found guilty of perjury and sentenced to 31 months each while their coach Christos Tzekos, the only one of the trio present in court, was sentenced to 33 months.

All the sentences were suspended pending appeals with court officials claiming that all the guilty parties intended to appeal and that they would be heard within 10 days.

The 37-year-old Kederis was hailed of one of Greece's greatest sporting stars after he surprisingly won the gold medal in the 200 metres at the Sydney 2000 Olympics while Thanou, who is now 36, claimed an Olympic silver medal in the women's 100m at the same Games behind Marion Jones. 

The sprinters, who had said an accident caused them to miss a drugs test on the eve of the Games, were both set to be major stars at Athens 2004 Olympics and were strong gold medal contenders heading into the event.

As a result of missing the out-of-competition drugs tests both runners were expelled from the Olympics, even though Kederis had been due to light the flame at the Opening Ceremony.

Judge Dimitris Lefkos said the crash had never occurred.

Two witnesses to the supposed crash and several doctors who claimed to have treated the athletes in hospital were given shorter sentences.

During the trial the former sprinters had denied wrongdoing, as had Tzekos who was accused of supplying banned substances.

After they were found guilty of perjury, Kenteris's lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos denounced the verdict as he stated: "It is simply unbelievable to refuse any mitigating circumstances to Olympic champions.

"That is granted to drug dealers and felons."

The trial, which took years to start after frequent postponements, began in January and suffered several delays due to the absence of witnesses.

Kederis and Thanou were acquitted of doping charges in a Greek athletics federation probe in 2005 but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) appealed the verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

They settled out of court in 2006 and subsequently admitted only to anti-doping rule violations, essentially serving out their unofficial two-year suspensions.

The scandal is widely regarded as the biggest at an Olympics since Canadian Ben Johnson lost his 100m gold medal in Seoul in 1988 after a positive doping test and cast a huge cloud over the Athens Games for the host country.

Jones was stripped of her 100m title from Sydney but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to award Thanou the gold medal because of what had happened in Athens.

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