Finnish ski coach Kari-Pekka Kyro convicted for smuggling and attempted fraud{mosimage}Finnish ski coach Kari-Pekka Kyro, who was fired in 2001 after giving six top cross-country skiers banned substances, was convicted Thursday in a district court for smuggling and attempted fraud.

Kyro, the Finnish Ski Association’s head coach at the World Nordic Skiing Championships in Finland in 2001, was convicted and fined the equivalent of 551 U.S. dollars, and ordered to pay legal fees totaling US$19,300 by the Vantaa district court.

He had earlier acknowledged administering HES, a plasma expander injected into the blood to improve performance or hide the use of other banned substances, at the championships in Finland in February 2001. He was arrested and subsequently replaced.

“Although no individual piece of evidence is strong in itself, the combined evidence is so coherent and convincing that there is no reasonable doubt as to his guilt,” the court decision said.

–from AP newswires