The same drug which got Neals Strik in trouble at Bermuda International Race Weekend has earned him an eight-year prison term.

The Dutch athlete was convicted and sentenced on Thursday in his homeland for smuggling cocaine between there and Guatemala. The prosecution, who portrayed the distance runner as the brains behind a thriving drug ring, had asked for a nine-year custodial term ? four or five years of actual prison time.

Strik tested positive for the same drug after placing third for the second successive year in the International Half-Marathon here in January. He was arrested on criminal charges shortly after he returned home.

His court case has so far prevented the Dutch athletics federation from hearing his doping case and determining if he should be banned from the sport for two years. Strik was provisionally suspended following positive cocaine tests in his A and B samples.

The decision on Strik's final suspension rests with his federation and, if confirmed, would be retroactive to the date of his drug test.