VICTOR CONTE, the head of the Balco laboratory in California and the mastermind in the biggest sporting drugs scandal in American history, was sentenced to eight months yesterday for his role in providing elite players in American football, baseball and athletics with performance-enhancing drugs.

Conte, who will spend four months in jail and a further four in home confinement, received a light sentence because of a plea bargain that he had agreed with the federal authorities. He pleaded guilty to minor charges of conspiracy to supply designer anabolic steroids to some of the biggest names in sport.

The case has ensnared Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi in baseball, while Conte has alleged that he gave drugs to Marion Jones, who won three gold medals at the 2000 Olympics. Jones has denied taking drugs and threatened to sue Conte for £14.4 million.

The San Francisco court also sentenced James Valente, the vice-president of Balco (Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative), to probation after he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of steroid distribution. Greg Anderson, Bonds’s trainer, was given six months, three of them in jail, after pleading guilty to money laundering and steroid distribution.

Remi Korchemny, the former coach to Dwain Chambers, the British sprinter who was banned in 2004 for two years after taking tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), nicknamed “The Clear”, is expected to be given probation when his case comes up shortly.

However, the controversy will not end with the sentences yesterday. Tim Montgomery, the former world 100 metres record-holder, and Chryste Gaines, another American sprinter, have been charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency because of the evidence emerging from the investigation into Balco, although neither have ever been found positive in a drugs test. Their cases will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

Last month the American authorities also raided a laboratory in Illinois headed by Patrick Arnold, who is known to have introduced androstenedione, the steroid precursor, to baseball in the US. “Andro” became notorious when Mark McGwire admitted using the drug, which was then not prohibited by the baseball authorities, when he broke the Major League single-season home-run record as a member of the St Louis Cardinals in 1998. Arnold is believed to have been the scientist who developed THG.