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Former Austrian nordic skiing coach Walter Mayer was released after spending over a month in custody, on suspicion of dealing in doping substances.

The 52-year-old was arrested on March 22, suspected of obtaining and providing illegal doping substances, including the banned blood booster EPO, according to the prosecution.

He was remanded in custody on March 25.

In a massive anti-doping clean-up last month, Austrian authorities also arrested a cyclist, Christof Kerschbaum, and a Vienna pharmacist believed to have supplied Mayer and Kerschbaum with banned substances.

Kerschbaum has since been released.

Stefan Matschiner, the former manager of Austrian cyclist and doping offender Bernard Kohl, meanwhile remains in custody.

A presumed big fish in the Austrian doping world, Matschiner was arrested on March 30, after banned Austrian triathlete Lisa Huetthaler, 25, named him as one of her main suppliers of EPO in an interview.

Kohl also revealed later that Matschiner had supplied him with doping substances.

Authorities were also investigating Andreas Zoubek, a doctor at a Vienna children's hospital, suspected of providing EPO to Huetthaler and other athletes.

Mayer, a former coach to the Austrian national nordic ski team, was already implicated in a doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, involving the Austrian biathlon and cross-country squads.

AFP