Montgomery in prison for five years

Former Olympic gold medal winner Tim Montgomery was on Friday sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to distributing heroin in Virginia Beach last year.

The Virginian-Pilot reported that Montgomery, 33, will serve the five years on top of the four-year prison term he already received in New York for participating in a cheque-fraud conspiracy.

Once dubbed 'the world's fastest man', Montgomery pleaded guilty to federal heroin distribution charges on July 3.

Montgomery, the former 100-metre world-record holder, had been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of over 100 grams of heroin.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Montgomery sold 111 grams of heroin for nearly US$8500 to an undercover DEA informant. Four meetings between Montgomery and the informant were videotaped and recorded by the DEA.

Montgomery also had pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan in April 2007 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud in a counterfeit check scheme that also embroiled fellow Olympic champion sprinter and former partner Marion Jones.

Thirteen months later, Montgomery received a jail sentence of three years and 10 months for his role in the scheme.

Montgomery retired from track and field in December 2005 in the wake of receiving a two-year doping ban, not for failing a drug test but on the basis of an admission he gave about his use of steroids in 2001 in testimony to the 2003 BALCO investigation.

His ban from the sport also brought with it an order to return his Olympic medals, a gold he won in the 400-metre relay in Sydney in 2000 and a silver in the same event at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Montgomery's world record-breaking 100 metre run of 9.78 seconds, set in Paris in 2002, was erased from the historical lists.