A former East German swimmer yesterday told a court she had been given performance-enhancing drugs from the age of 14 while competing for the former communist state.

Birgit-Heike Matz said she developed body hair and noticed her voice deepen after being ordered to take "little blue pills".

According to the prosecutors' charges, the blue pills contained the banned steroid oral-turinabol.

Matz said nobody had warned her about the side effects of the drugs she had to take.

From 1973 to 1978, Matz was in the training group of Rolf Glaeser - one of six officials on trial for allegedly causing bodily harm to female swimmers by giving them drugs.

"We were handed a few pills by the trainer," Matz said. "Among them were little blue pills."

When asked if she was sure that the pills had been given to her by Glaeser, Matz said: "Yes, 100 per cent sure."

Matz, now 35, told the court that she also had received injections in 1978.

From 1978 until the end of her career in 1979, Matz, whose best result was a third place in the European junior championships, trained under the orders of another of the officials on trial, Dieter Krause.

In the summer of 1979, Matz was kicked off the team by Krause because of poor results.

The six on trial - four swimming coaches and two doctors - are accused of giving 19 female swimmers steroids between 1975 and 1989.

If convicted, coaches Glaeser, Krause, Volker Frischke, Dieter Lindemann and doctors Dieter Binus and Bernd Pansold, could face several years in jail.

All six were employed by East German club SC Dynamo Berlin.

Another former East German swimmer, Kerstin Olm, told the court last week that her voice deepened after she was given an injection. She also mentioned blue pills.

Former world record holder Christiane Knacke-Sommer, the first athlete to testify in the trial, said last month that she was regularly doped from the age of 15.

"We were told the drugs were supportive measures which would allow us to endure training more easily," Knacke-Sommer told the court, adding that she and her fellow swimmers were aware of side effects.

"When, at 15 or 16 years old, you suddenly have a deep voice, need to shave your legs and look fattened up then naturally you talk to one another about it," she said.

Those who refused such treatment were not allowed to train any more, she added.